With all the recent court cases about mifepristone, it can be hard to keep up. The UW Collaborative for Reproductive Equity (CORE) will endeavor to keep its followers updated with the latest information, especially about the implications for Wisconsin. See a previous update from CORE on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling related to FDA approval of mifepristone following competing lower court decisions.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday (August 16) released a ruling on the widely used abortion medication mifepristone as part of the ongoing case Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA. Access to mifepristone will not change until the U.S. Supreme Court decides in this case. But if the ruling goes into effect, it would bring big changes to abortion care.
The ruling keeps in place the FDA’s original approval of mifepristone for abortion and miscarriage care from 2000. It also keeps in place the FDA’s later approval of the generic version of the drug.
But the ruling would reverse changes made by the FDA since 2016, which greatly expanded access to medication abortion. According to this ruling, mifepristone could only be prescribed by doctors and could not be provided by telehealth. Returning to these restrictions would require multiple in-person visits, reduce the number of providers of care, and likely overwhelm brick-and-mortar clinics.
If the ruling goes into effect, it would apply in all U.S. states. Here in Wisconsin, mifepristone is not available for abortion care since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year.