On Thursday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ended the FDA’s approval of mail-order abortions. This most recent twist in a long back and forth court battle over the abortion pill means that while the mifepristone abortion pill is, unfortunately, still legal in the U.S., it is once again under stricter regulations, including a requirement for in-person distribution. The Biden Administration has said that it intends to appeal to the Supreme Court with the goal of keeping mail-order DIY abortions legal.
The Fifth Circuit’s ruling partially upheld an earlier decision from U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a federal judge in Texas. Although it stopped distribution of the abortion pill by mail, the Fifth Circuit blocked enforcement of the rest of Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling that would have banned mifepristone abortions entirely.
Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling came out last Friday in response to a lawsuit from Alliance Defending Freedom and the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a group that has been fighting the FDA’s irresponsible approval of the RU-486 abortion pill regimen for the past 20 years. In 2002, the group petitioned the FDA to reconsider its approval of the abortion pill regimen. The FDA denied the petition in 2016, at which point it allowed even more lax oversight of the abortion pill regimen. It denied another petition in 2021 and lifted in-person requirements, allowing the abortion pill to be distributed by mail.
Last November, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine brought the case to federal court, pointing out that the FDA had rushed the approval process for the abortion pill by classifying pregnancy as a “life-threatening disease.” Pregnancy is not a disease. It is the wonderful, natural process by which a woman’s body nurtures and sustains the life of her child from fertilization to birth.
The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine plans to continue to fight to reverse the FDA’s approval of mifepristoneand is hopeful that upon full review of the case, the Fifth Circuit may still uphold Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling.
Mifepristone has been on the market for a little over 20 years, and in that time it has injured thousands of women and killed 28. It is four times more dangerous than a surgical abortion and, as Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling acknowledged, it ends the life of an unborn human.
The Fifth Circuit’s ruling also pointed out that the abortion lobby’s insistence that the abortion pill is “just as safe as Tylenol or ibuprofen” is completely false, stating, “[the] F.D.A.’s own documents show that mifepristone bears no resemblance to ibuprofen.”
As the case continues to make its way through the courts, abortion facilities in Minnesota have made it clearthat even if mifepristone is removed from the market, they will continue to commit chemical abortions using misoprostol. Misoprostol is the second pill in the RU-486 abortion pill regimen. Because it has been approved by the FDA to treat ulcers, it is not affected by Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling. Its off-label use for abortions is even more dangerous than the mifepristone protocol because it is more likely to result in an incomplete abortion.
Abortion is not medicine. It does not treat a disease, and rather than healing a patient, it kills a preborn child. Chemical abortions also pose a significant danger to women. As the FDA and the abortion industry continue to utterly disregard the lives and safety of women and babies, the pro-life movement must continue working to build a culture of life where abortion is unthinkable and every life is protected.
