A federal appeals court issued a ruling on Friday temporarily halting the ability of abortion providers to prescribe pills by telemedicine and send them to patients by mail, blocking what has become a major avenue for women seeking abortions in recent years.
The order comes in a case in which the state of Louisiana is suing the Food and Drug Administration, seeking to sharply curtail access to the abortion pill mifepristone. In the order, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted Louisiana’s request for a temporary stay of the F.D.A.’s decision several years ago to remove a requirement that patients see a medical provider in person before the pills could be prescribed.
The court order, citing Louisiana’s claims that making pills available by mail has allowed the medication to be sent to patients there despite the state’s near-total abortion ban, said that “Louisiana has shown that it is irreparably harmed without a stay.”
In April, a federal district court in Louisiana had declined to pause the availability of pills by mail, instead saying that the court proceedings should be delayed until the F.D.A. completes a safety review of mifepristone that is underway and is expected to take until late this year.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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