A three-judge panel from the conservative Texas-based Fifth Circuit Court ruled that restrictions on the distribution of the contraceptive drug mifepristone were legal, but continued a stay that allows the drug to continue to be distributed until the case can be heard by the Supreme Court, the Washington Post reported.
The panel ruled that the 2016 changes by the FDA to allow the drug to be used later in pregnancy, to be delivered via mail, and to be prescribed by medical staff other than a doctor were unlawful because the agency did not follow established procedures. The court’s ruling has little to do with the safety and efficacy of the drug; the anti-choice activist judges are concentrating on what conservatives would derisively describe as “process errors.”