A federal appeals court granted Louisiana’s request to reinstate a requirement that the abortion drug mifepristone be dispensed in person. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals released the opinion on Friday, delivering anti-abortion advocates a nationwide win.
The Food and Drug Administration first ended the rule temporarily in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It then lifted it again, permanently, months after the overturn of Roe V. Wade.
Louisiana challenged the FDA’s move in court, arguing that the agency’s justifications for dispensing mifepristone by mail or telehealth were based on flawed or nonexistent data.
FDA officials in the Biden administration said when first eliminating the requirement that dozens of studies following thousands of women over the years have proven that the pill is safe.
The FDA under Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy announced a review of mifepristone to determine whether the medication’s current guidelines remain safe or need adjustments in September 2025.
Data from the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that supports abortion rights, shows that medication abortion accounts for roughly two out of every three abortions nationwide.
Kelly Baden, vice president for public policy at the Guttmacher Institute, decried Friday’s ruling, saying it “represents the most sweeping threat to abortion since the overturning of Roe v. Wade” and would restrict access to mifepristone even in states where the procedure is still legal.
Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney for the Reproductive Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that “anti-abortion politicians have just made it much harder for people everywhere in the country to get a medication that abortion and miscarriage patients have been safely using for more than 25 years.”
“Louisiana’s legal attack on mifepristone shamelessly packaged lies and propaganda as an excuse to restrict abortion — and the Fifth Circuit rubber-stamped it,” Kaye said. “For countless people, especially those who live in rural areas, face intimate partner violence, or live with disabilities, losing a telemedicine option will mean losing access to this vital medication altogether.”
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, meanwhile, called the federal appeals court’s decision “another major victory for Louisiana, but more importantly for LIFE!”