Federal Court Blocks FDA’s Loosened Restrictions on Abortion Pills

A federal appeals court issued an order on Wednesday halting two U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) actions which loosened restrictions around mifepristone, the first pill used in a two-drug chemical abortion regimen. A three-judge panel of the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the FDA’s 2016 decision to allow the abortion pill to be taken later in pregnancy is unlawful. The court said the same of the FDA’s 2021 rule change, which allowed the abortion pill to be mailed directly to patients and allowed...