A three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, ruled against laxer safety standards placed on the abortion pill by the Obama and Biden administrations. In the case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. US Food and Drug Administration, a collection of doctors and OB-GYNs represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom argued the FDA had negligently abused its expedited approval of the chemical abortion drug mifepristone in 2000 for political purposes.

The panel believed the doctors waited too long to file a legal challenge, as the statute of limitations had likely expired. But it overturned abortion expansions made in 2021 by the Biden administration and in 2016 by the Obama-Biden administration. Wednesday's ruling:

• reduces the number of weeks mifepristone may be dispensed from 10 weeks to seven;
• stipulates that only a physician may prescribe the pill, also known as RU-486;
• ends telemed abortions by requiring an abortion-minded woman to have three in-person visits with a doctor: the first to confirm pregnancy and to take mifepristone, the second to take misoprostol, and a follow-up to check for adverse effects caused by the chemical abortion;
• bars abortion pills from being sent through the mail; and
• mandates that abortionists report all adverse events caused by mifepristone, not merely when the pill causes a woman's death.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins called the ruling a "significant victory for the health and safety of women." Former Congressman Jody Hice said the judgment constitutes "a huge, huge victory for the pro-life movement as a whole and for protecting the health of women."

The Biden administration "unlawfully allowed for mail-order abortions," ADF senior counsel Erin Hawley told Hice on "Washington Watch" Thursday. "The Fifth Circuit's decision puts an end to that." The decision "makes good on the promise of Dobbs" by stopping abortion activists in Democrat-controlled states from shipping mifepristone into pro-life states, eviscerating state pro-life protections for the unborn …

"In loosening mifepristone's safety restrictions, FDA failed to address several important concerns about whether the drug would be safe for the women who use it," wrote Judge Jennifer Elrod in the majority opinion. "It failed to consider the cumulative effect of removing several important safeguards at the same time."

One of the plaintiffs in the case, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologist (AAPLOG), told The Washington Stand the ruling is "a first step towards reprioritizing women's health over the interests of the abortion industry and its allies within our profession." FRC senior fellow Meg Kilgannon stressed that, although the abortion pill is "never safe for the baby" — "the baby is going to die" in any abortion — these terms constitute a "huge improvement over" existing practices. Giving abortion pills directly to the mother is "medically much safer for women" than shipping them via the mail, because it "ensures that no third party can have access to them and then further exploit women: a trafficker, a human trafficker, someone who would give these drugs to a woman unbeknownst to her."

Pro-life advocates "should be cautiously optimistic" as the case moves forward, Rev. Jim Harden of CompassCare told TWS. "Pending the Supreme Court's review, the drug remains available to women without medical oversight. Furthermore, the abortion industry continues to illegally ship the drug to women's homes in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 1461 and 1462," conventionally known as the Comstock Act. Two days after Christmas 2022, Biden's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued an opinion that pharmacies may mail or ship abortion pills to pro-life states.

These measures will not take effect immediately, if at all. The Supreme Court issued a stay requiring the case to be fully adjudicated, possibly all the way to the High Court, before the appeals court ruling can take effect. Justices have not yet indicated if they plan to hear the case without a conflicting ruling from another court.

The panoply of possible harms has multiplied as US chemical abortions in the US doubled between 2011 and 2020. Mifepristone now accounts for 54% of all U.S. abortions, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. The current regimen of unsupervised "mail-order abortion pills put thousands of women and girls at risk of serious complications from abortion pills every year," said Katie Daniel, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America's state policy director.

Studies have documented that the two-drug abortion cocktail causes four times the level of harmful side effects for women than surgical abortions. The FDA documented 4,207 adverse events from mifepristone use — including 26 deaths, 1,045 hospitalizations, 603 events requiring a blood transfusion, and 413 infections between 2000 and 2021. One study found that as many as 35 of every 100 women who ingest both pills will end up in the emergency room. In a pending lawsuit in New York City, a 16-year-old girl swore that mifepristone left her permanently "sick, sore, lame and disabled" — and caused her child, who survived, to be born with "profound birth defects."

"I've personally treated many women for complications from the abortion pill (mifepristone and misoprostol), including performing emergency surgery on a woman who bled for two months after receiving these drugs," noted Dr. Ingrid Skop, an OB-GYN who serves as vice president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute. "Those promoting unsupervised DIY abortion pills clearly prioritize the deaths of unborn children over the health and safety of women."

A majority (55%) of women who consider themselves "pro-choice" regret their decision to take mifepristone, according to a national survey from Support After Abortion. One-third of women subjected to a chemical abortion "reported an adverse change" in their lives, such as "depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and thoughts of suicide," the group found.

Mail-order abortion "lacks any sort of meaningful medical oversight and places women in danger of serious, life-threatening complications, and ends the lives of unborn children," Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, told TWS. "The FDA has a solemn duty to prioritize health and safety over politics and should be held accountable for failing to do so."

The Fifth Circuit partially affirmed and partially vacated a stronger decision from US District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, who ruled on April 7 that FDA wrongly approved mifepristone in 2000. They allowed the drug to be dispensed according to 2016 standards and allowed a 2019 motion for the name-brand Mifeprex to be dispensed as a generic drug.

Pro-life advocates hope if and when the case comes before the Supreme Court, justices will reconsider mifepristone's controversial approval in 2000, which they contend took place under political pressure from the Clinton administration. In doing so, they state, the FDA violated the Administration Procedure Act.

"The FDA, just like any other agency, has to follow the rules. They didn't do that for chemical abortion. They bowed to political pressure," Hawley told Hice. The courts should view the litigation "not as an abortion case, but as a case in which an agency simply failed to follow the rules." One of the panel's judges — Judge James Ho, a Trump appointee — dissented that the FDA's approval of mifepristone should be reversed, pulling mifepristone off all pharmaceutical shelves.

"The FDA exists to protect Americans from dangerous drugs, yet numerous pro-abortion presidents used the agency as a political tool to promote elective abortion at the expense of pregnant women and their preborn children," Texas Right to Life president John Seago told The Washington Stand. "We hope the court will take accusations against the FDA seriously and will fairly examine the agency's negligent and politically-motivated approval of this deadly abortion drug over the last 23 years."

Multiple levels of the Biden administration immediately registered their outrage at Wednesday's ruling …Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Click here to continue reading.

To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE

Why the New RomCom ‘MERV’ Can Bring You Joy This Christmas

How the 'Heavens Declare the Glory of God': What One Man's Research Has Revealed about The Star of Bethlehem

Over 50 Tren de Aragua Gang Members Imported Under Democrats Indicted in Nebraska in Massive Nationwide ATM Jackpotting Scheme

205 Child Victims Located and Rescued in DOJ Sex Exploitation Op

Trump Admin Pausing All Off Shore Wind Project Construction Due To National Security Concerns

Trump Grants Federal Workers Two Additional Christmas Holidays

America Fest 2025: Erika Kirk Endorses 'My Husband's Friend' JD Vance for President

Brent Bozell Confirmed as US Ambassador to South Africa

Jury Quickly Convicts Judge Who Helped Illegal Migrant Escape ICE

Feds Estimate Somali-Linked Fraud in Walz's Minnesota Could Top $9 Billion

Trump SUSPENDS 'Green Card Lottery' after Program Let Brown University–MIT Shooting Suspect Enter the US

Brown, MIT Shooter Found Dead for Days in NH Storage Unit; Motive Still a Mystery

House Passes Bill to Criminalize Transgender Mutilation of Children

November Inflation Falls to 2.7%, Lower than Expected: 'This Is Good News for Wall Street; It’s Good News for Main Street'

MOVIEGUIDE's Review of the New Animated Film: DAVID

Massachusetts Drops Controversial Gender Ideology Mandate for Licensing Foster Care Parents

Nearly 40% of Women Suffer Severe Grief for Years after Abortion, Miscarriage: Study

Former Pfizer Vice President: COVID Shots Were 'Designed to Cause Injury,' Reduce Fertility

Dutch Sheets Shares a Warning from the US National Counterterrorism Center

Venezuela: Trump's Pressure Campaign and Maduro's Fury