Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,
A federal appeals court on Sept. 9 questioned whether Louisiana, which has a near-total ban on abortion, has standing to force a nationwide return of in-person dispensing for abortion drug mifepristone, which patients can now obtain by telehealth and mail.
Mifepristone tablets are displayed at a family planning clinic in Rockville, Md., on April 13, 2023. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesA medication abortion generally involves mifepristone, which blocks the hormone progesterone, and misoprostol, which induces contractions.
Louisiana says mifepristone can cause heavy bleeding and, in rare cases, life-threatening infection, and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should bring back the pre-2023 rule requiring the drug to be dispensed in person at a clinic, office, or hospital. The state argues the Biden-era change, which allows a certified prescriber to order the pills by telehealth services and a pharmacy to mail them, skipped an adequate safety review and undercuts Louisiana's abortion ban.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit temporarily blocked the rule in May, but later that month the Supreme Court lifted that order, allowing the drug to continue to be dispensed through the mail.
The FDA, now under President Donald Trump, is currently reviewing safety claims about the drug.
If the state ultimately wins its ongoing lawsuit against the FDA to reinstate the requirement for in-perso
