[Source: Reuters]

Access to the abortion pill mifepristone must be restricted, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday, ordering a ban on telemedicine prescriptions and shipments of the drug by mail, though the decision will not immediately take effect.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stopped short of ruling that the drug must be pulled off the market altogether, as a lower court had done.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice said that the Biden administration will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, supports abortion rights and last year ordered the federal health agency to expand access to mifepristone.

The ruling will not take effect until the Supreme Court reviews it, which could occur in its upcoming term from October to June.

The three-judge 5th Circuit panel was reviewing an order in April by U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas. While it was a preliminary ruling that applied while the case was pending, Kacsmaryk said he was ultimately likely to make it permanent.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by four anti-abortion groups headed by the recently formed Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and four anti-abortion doctors who sued in November.

They contend the FDA used an improper process when it approved mifepristone in 2000 and did not adequately consider the drug’s safety when used by minors.

“The 5th Circuit rightly required the FDA to do its job and restore crucial safeguards for women and girls, including ending illegal mail-order abortions,” Erin Hawley of Alliance Defending Freedom, a lawyer for the anti-abortion groups challenging the pill’s approval, said in a statement.

That view was echoed by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which said in a statement the FDA had been “reckless.”

Alexis McGill Johnson, president of abortion rights group Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the decision “makes it clear that mifepristone’s approval is very much still at risk, as is the FDA’s independence.”

GenBioPro Inc, which sells a generic version of mifepristone, said in a statement from CEO Evan Masingill: “We remain concerned about extremists and special interests using the courts in an attempt to undermine science and access to evidence-based medication, as well as attempts to undermine the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory authority.”

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