{"id":2598028,"date":"2026-05-02T12:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/appeals-court-blocks-fda-policy-that-let-abortionists-traffick-deadly-illegal-drugs-by-mail\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T12:44:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:44:32","slug":"appeals-court-blocks-fda-policy-that-let-abortionists-traffick-deadly-illegal-drugs-by-mail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/appeals-court-blocks-fda-policy-that-let-abortionists-traffick-deadly-illegal-drugs-by-mail\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Blocks FDA From Allowing Illegal, Deadly Abortion-By-Mail"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fappeals-court-blocks-fda-policy-that-let-abortionists-traffick-deadly-illegal-drugs-by-mail%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2598028&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit temporarily blocked a Biden-era FDA policy that allowed mifepristone-the first drug in the abortion medication regimen-to be mailed without requiring an in-person doctor visit. In a unanimous decision issued by a three-judge panel, the court found that Louisiana was likely to succeed on the merits and had shown irreparable harm from the policy, including evidence of illegal abortions and Medicaid costs tied to patients harmed by mifepristone.<\/p>\n<p>The court pointed to repeated skepticism about the FDA\u2019s \u201crelaxation\u201d of earlier safety guardrails. After the FDA changed its rules in 2023 to remove the requirement for an in-person examination, Louisiana sued in 2025, challenging the data and analysis the FDA relied on. The appellate court noted that the FDA had conceded that the regulations were affected by procedural problems and insufficient consideration, citing a September 2025 letter from then-HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary promising a new risk evaluation.<\/p>\n<p>The article also <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >cites pro-life-leaning research<\/a> and advocacy claims about higher real-world risks from mifepristone than reflected on the drug\u2019s label, and describes pressure on the Trump management and FDA to restore mail-order protections.Pro-life advocates argue the FDA has delayed acting while conducting internal review and has even tried to slow proceedings by asking the lower court to pause the lawsuit pending the agency\u2019s review.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted a Biden-era policy that allowed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-case-freezing-the-fdas-abortion-pill-approval\/\" title=\"Everything You Need To Know About The Case Freezing The ...s Abortion Pill Approval\">dangerous abortion drugs<\/a> to be mailed to women without so much as an in-person doctor appointment, in a unanimous <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026-05-01-Fifth-Circuit-Order-Granting-Stay-of-2023-REMS.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ruling<\/a> by a three-judge panel on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Mifepristone is the primary drug in the regimen that euthanizes a baby in utero and expels it from a mother\u2019s body. After it was first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/drugs\/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers\/questions-and-answers-mifepristone-medical-termination-pregnancy-through-ten-weeks-gestation\">approved<\/a> by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000, federal safety guardrails required a doctor to examine a woman in person before prescribing it. <\/p>\n<p>Such regulations helped to protect women with ectopic pregnancies, for whom the drug could be deadly, and women <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/abortion-pill-poisoning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">at risk<\/a> of being given the drug against their will. But in 2023, at the direction of then-President Joe Biden, the FDA removed these longstanding protections, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-leaves-town-for-six-week-recess-with-spending-bill-drama-unresolved\/\" title=\"House departs without resolving spending bill drama for six-week recess.\">allowing abortion pills<\/a> to be trafficked through the mail without any in-person safeguards.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, the state of Louisiana sued the FDA, pointing to problems with data the FDA used to justify such a drastic rollback of safeguards. As the 5th Circuit noted, Louisiana \u201cdocumented how the new regulation had resulted in numerous illegal abortions in Louisiana and in Louisiana paying thousands in Medicaid bills for women harmed by mifepristone.\u201d Later in the decision, the court added that almost 1,000 illegal abortions occurred in Louisiana every month due to the FDA policy. The state asked for a pause on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/as-thousands-march-for-life-democrats-are-out-of-step-with-majority\/\" title=\"As Thousands March For Life, Democrats Are Out Of Step With Majority\">mail-order abortion drugs<\/a> until the case was decided.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, the 5th Circuit granted Louisiana\u2019s request. Judge Kyle Duncan, writing for the unanimous panel, observed the lower district court had agreed Louisiana \u201chad standing, was likely to succeed on the merits, and was suffering irreparable harm\u201d from the lax policy. Nevertheless, the district court refused to pause it. Louisiana appealed the district court\u2019s decision, arguing the harms caused by the policy were severe enough to merit the stay.<\/p>\n<p>The 5th Circuit agreed: \u201cWe have now three times found that the agency\u2019s progressive relaxation of mifepristone\u2019s guardrails likely lacked a basis in data and scientific literature,\u201d Duncan wrote. \u201cFDA\u00a0itself now concedes the regulations were marred by \u2018procedural deficits\u2019 and a \u2018lack of adequate consideration.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The latter admission from the FDA came in a letter from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in September 2025. After 22 state attorneys general sent a letter to Kennedy and Makary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/20-attorneys-general-fda-abortion-pill-safeguards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">demanding<\/a> the Trump appointees undo the Biden administration\u2019s dangerous mail-order mifepristone policy, the health officials <a href=\"https:\/\/democracyforward.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Fda_Hhs_Letter-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">admitted<\/a> to receiving \u201creports of serious adverse events in patients who took mifepristone\u201d and acknowledged a \u201d lack of adequate consideration underlying the prior\u201d approvals of the drug. Kennedy and Makary promised to conduct a new risk evaluation of mifepristone.<\/p>\n<p>There is substantial evidence of the drug\u2019s dangers. A groundbreaking study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center last year examined data from nearly 900,000 drug-induced abortions and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/04\/29\/largest-known-abortion-pill-study-shows-theyre-way-more-dangerous-than-we-knew\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">concluded<\/a>, \u201c10.93 percent of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following a mifepristone abortion.\u201d Further, the EPPC researchers found that \u201cthe real-world rate of serious adverse effects following mifepristone abortions is at least 22 times as high as the summary figure of \u2018less than 0.5 percent\u2019 in clinical trials reported on the drug label.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after that study, more than 100 organizations <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/05\/15\/more-than-100-organizations-plead-with-fda-to-protect-women-from-dangerous-abortion-drug\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">urged<\/a> the Trump FDA to repeal the Biden-era relaxation of safety protections. A poll conducted in August 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/10\/28\/trumps-trusted-pollster-even-pro-aborts-say-mifepristone-is-dangerous-and-needs-fda-regulation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">found<\/a> that even many Americans who profess to be pro-abortion have concerns about the safety of mifepristone and want to see the FDA restore protections for women.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the Trump administration has moved slowly to respond to those safety concerns, in the eyes of many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/americans-remember-the-48th-annual-march-for-life\/\" title=\"Americans remember the 48th annual March for Life\">pro-life advocates<\/a>. The FDA <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/04\/29\/fda-commissioner-faces-pressure-to-limit-abortion-pill-after-study-finds-increased-risks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">appears<\/a> to be waiting until its internal review of mifepristone, promised last year, is completed before the agency will consider undoing the Biden-era mail-order abortion policy. The FDA has even gone so far as to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/01\/29\/fda-wants-pause-on-landmark-abortion-pill-suit-pro-lifers-say-it-will-cost-lives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fight against<\/a> Louisiana\u2019s landmark lawsuit, asking the district court in January to pause the case pending the FDA\u2019s own review of the drug.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s shameful that the Trump administration\u2019s inaction has forced pro-life states to take their battle to the federal courts,\u201d said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser in response to Friday\u2019s ruling. \u201cThe FDA does not need a year or more to complete a comprehensive study before it can take dangerous abortion drugs out of the mail.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Elle Purnell is the assignment editor at The Federalist. She has appeared on Fox Business and Newsmax, and her work has been featured by RealClearPolitics, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Independent Women&#8217;s Forum. She received her B.A. in government with a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @_ellepurnell.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>5th Circuit pauses Biden-era policy allowing mail-order abortion drugs without in-person doctor checks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1353,"featured_media":2598031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/danilo-alvesd-Y14ONzYtxb4-unsplash.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,33651],"tags":[32868,33740,8468,32714,37535],"class_list":["post-2598028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","category-the-western-journal","tag-abortion-rights","tag-court-ruling","tag-fda","tag-legal-challenges","tag-reproductive-health"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/danilo-alvesd-Y14ONzYtxb4-unsplash.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2598028"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2598034,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598028\/revisions\/2598034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2598031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2598028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2598028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2598028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}