Federal court blocks abortion pills by mail nationwide

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News

The Fifth Circuit sided with Louisiana against the Biden’s FDA mail-order abortion pill policy, in a major victory for life. An abortion drug maker has now appealed to the Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 23: People attend the annual March for Life rally on January 23, 2026 in Washington, DC.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

UPDATE, May 2, 2:00 p.m.: Danco Laboratories, one of the pharmaceutical companies that makes mifepristone, filed an emergency appeal on Saturday asking the Supreme Court to pause the Fifth Circuit’s ruling.

NEW ORLEANS (LifeSiteNews) — A federal appeals court blocked the distribution of the abortion pill mifepristone by mail throughout the U.S. in a major ruling on Friday.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Louisiana in its challenge against the Biden FDA’s 2023 rule that allows mifepristone to be prescribed and dispensed without an in-person appointment.

The policy, which the Biden administration issued after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, has massively increased the use of the drug, undermining state pro-life laws, increasing abortion rates, and causing serious harm to women, according to data.

Abortionists and abortion drug networks have mailed tens of thousands of pills into pro-life states under the Biden rule, often enabled by “shield laws” in Democrat states that protect illegal abortion pill distributors from out-of-state law enforcement.

The FDA’s policy “now facilitates nearly 1,000 illegal abortions in Louisiana per month,” the Fifth Circuit said.

Around two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. are currently estimated to be committed using pills.

A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit unanimously backed Louisiana’s lawsuit, temporarily halting the abortion pill rule while the case moves forward. Two of the judges were appointed by President Donald Trump and one by President George W. Bush.

The judges ruled that Louisiana is likely to succeed in the challenge, saying that the FDA policy “injures Louisiana by undermining its laws protecting unborn human life and also by causing it to spend Medicaid funds on emergency care for women harmed by mifepristone. Both injuries are irreparable.”

“Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban on medical [i.e., chemical] abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,’” the ruling adds. “Once lost, that sovereign prerogative of protecting unborn life cannot be regained by legal remedy.”

The New Orleans-based court also said that the FDA’s removal of the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone “likely lacked a basis in data and scientific literature.”

“The public interest is not served by perpetuating a medical practice whose safety the agency admits was inadequately studied. Indeed, the public interest demands the opposite,” the judges wrote.

The decision is “arguably the biggest rollback in access to abortion since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade,” leftist outlet Politico said.

It is likely to be quickly appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Fifth Circuit’s ruling overrides a lower court decision last month that temporarily left the FDA policy in place and gave the Trump administration more time to complete a supposed review of abortion pill data.

The administration has faced intense criticism from pro-lifers for declining so far to take action against mail-order abortion pills. FDA chief Marty Makary has said that the agency is waiting until after it concludes the review, but Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, have slammed the FDA’s lack of urgency and questioned if the review is even taking place.

The Trump FDA and Department of Justice have also opposed Louisiana’s lawsuit in court, as well as other state challenges to the Biden rule, further outraging pro-lifers.

At the same time, the Trump administration has taken numerous pro-life actions, including cutting hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups, banning funding for research using aborted babies’ tissue, protecting the conscience rights of pro-life medical workers, and ending the Biden administration’s targeting of pro-life advocates under the FACE Act, among other things.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which praised the Fifth Circuit’s decision, highlighted the severe harms that mail-order abortion pills pose to women. “Peer-reviewed research found three quarters of ER visits within 30 days after abortion drug use were coded as severe or critical,” the group said.

“Two separate, independent studies also found more than 1 in 10 women experience at least one severe adverse event. Complications can include hemorrhaging, infection, sepsis, and even death.”