The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FDA failed to address safety concerns when it made the abortion pill mifepristone easier to obtain in 2016. The ruling is a win for abortion opponents, who argued that the FDA’s alterations to the drug’s disbursement regime in 2016 qualified as “reopening” the question of its initial approval. The court said that mifepristone should remain available under the rules that were in place from 2000 to 2016, which will likely have a significant impact on the availability of the drug.
