Court Decision Restores In-Person Medical Visits for Dangerous Abortion Pills

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MRL Statement by Susan Klein, Executive Director:

On May 1st the United States Federal Appellate Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit entered a temporary order voiding the FDA regulations that allow abortion pills to be delivered to patients by mail and reinstated the previous FDA regulations that required an in person visit with a doctor before the abortion pills were administered to a mother.

In the arguments before the court the FDA conceded that it had failed to adequately study whether allowing the mailing of mifepristone (the abortion drug) without an in person doctor visit was safe.

Missouri Right to Life praises the court for recognizing the dangers of these abortion pills. We look forward to comprehensive medical oversight and in person visits before these dangerous abortion pills can be shipped to women.

Giving medication of any kind to any client before a review of medical history or current medical conditions is the most dangerous form of so-called healthcare. This court ruling will save women and babies.

The following is from National Right to Life:

WASHINGTON — The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision today temporarily blocks the Biden-era FDA rule that allowed abortion pills containing mifepristone to be distributed through the mail without an in-person medical visit. Today’s decision restores a critical layer of oversight for women’s health and state authority and reinstates the prior requirement that mifepristone be dispensed in person while litigation continues.

“This decision is an important step toward restoring common-sense medical safeguards that were recklessly discarded by the Biden administration in the rush to expand abortion pill access,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Mail-order abortion drugs bypass basic protections such as physical exams, accurate pregnancy dating, screening for ectopic pregnancy, and the abortion-by-mail scheme complicates emergency care.”

Tobias continued, “Women deserve better than an abortion-by-mail system that prioritizes ideology over safety.”