A US court has ruled that the abortion pill mifepristone may remain on the market for the time being. However, the Federal Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana, tightened the conditions under which the drug may be prescribed on Wednesday evening (local time).
The pill may therefore only be prescribed in the first seven weeks of pregnancy in medical practices. Previously, the period was set to the first ten weeks of pregnancy. According to the new rules, patients must also appear in person at the practice three times during the prescription period.
The decision of the Court of Appeals was made by a majority of two to one judge. The panel of judges overturned a previous decision by a federal judge in Texas to revoke mifepristone’s approval. However, the decision of the appellate judges is only provisional, and the legal dispute is likely to drag on for a long time.
Conservative federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on Friday last week overturned mifepristone’s approval, which was granted more than 20 years ago. Kacsmaryk thus upheld a lawsuit brought by anti-abortionists against the FDA. The US government then resisted the entry into force of this decision.
It is expected that the ultimate decision on the abortion pill will ultimately be made by the Supreme Court in Washington. There, the conservative camp has a clear majority of six of the nine judges after several new appointments during the tenure of ex-US President Donald Trump.
Watch the video: Abortions in the US – ‘Choose like your life depends on it’.
Abortion rights are one of the most controversial socio-political issues in the United States. The country’s Supreme Court scrapped the country’s fundamental right to abortion last June, a ruling that triggered a political earthquake.
Mifepristone, known in Germany under the trade name Mifegyne, is used in more than every second abortion in the USA. According to the FDA, more than 5.6 million women have used the pill since it was approved in 2000. In less than 1,500 cases there were complications without a link to mifepristone being established.
