The abortion pill, whose authorization was suspended last week, remains temporarily authorized in the United States, but under stricter conditions than before, according to a judgment rendered Wednesday evening by an appeals court.
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A panel of three judges based in New Orleans decided by two votes against one to maintain the authorization of mifepristone (RU 486), with limits.
To access it, it will now take three visits to the doctor during the prescription period, which will be limited to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, compared to ten previously.
This pill had been authorized by the American Medicines Agency (FDA) more than twenty years ago. Combined with misoprostol, it now accounts for 53% of abortions in the United States.
But last week Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, withdrew his marketing authorization. He had provided for a one-week delay before his decision would apply, in order to give the federal government time to appeal.
Anticipating his decision, a coalition of Democratic states had seized another court at the end of February to try to preserve this pill.
Less than an hour after Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision, one of his colleagues, Judge Thomas Rice, appointed by Barack Obama and sitting in Washington State, had deemed mifepristone to be “safe and effective” and had prohibited the FDA to withdraw its approval in the 17 appealing states.
At the same time, the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden had asked this New Orleans appeals court to intervene to block the “extraordinary and unprecedented” judgment of Judge Kacsmaryk, “pending the substantive review” folder.
In its appeal, the government recalled that more than 5 million women have used mifepristone, combined with another tablet, since its authorization by the FDA in 2000. When it is taken correctly, serious side effects are extremely rare, pleaded- he.
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Joe Biden had also ruled on Tuesday that the suspension of the authorization of the abortion pill “exceeded the limits”.
The two New Orleans Court of Appeals judges who voted for the increased restrictions, Kurt Engelhardt and Andrew Oldham, were appointed by Donald Trump, while the one who voted against, Catharina Haynes, was put in place by former President George W. Bush.
The twist comes nearly a year after the conservative-dominated Supreme Court struck down constitutional abortion protections, leaving individual states free to legislate.
Since then, fifteen of them have banned abortions on their soil.