The abortion pill mifepristone is to remain available in the US while anti-abortion groups pursue a legal challenge seeking to ban it, but with significant restrictions, including a requirement for in-person physician visits to obtain the drug, a federal appeals court ruled late on Wednesday.
The New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold part of an order by US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, on Friday last week that had suspended the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the drug while the groups’ lawsuit is pending.
However, the appeals court declined to block portions of Kacsmaryk’s order, effectively reinstating restrictions on the pill’s distribution that had been lifted since 2016.
Photo: Reuters
The FDA and lawyers for the groups suing to block the drug could not immediately be reached for comment.
Kacsmaryk’s ruling apparently conflicts with a different federal judge’s decision, also issued on Friday last week, ordering the FDA to maintain access to mifepristone with no new restrictions in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has asked the judge in that case to clarify his order in light of Kacsmaryk’s.
The lawsuit before Kacsmaryk was filed against the FDA in November last year by four anti-abortion groups, led by the recently formed Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and four anti-abortion doctors.
They contend the agency used an improper process when it approved mifepristone in 2000 and did not adequately consider the drug’s safety when used by girls under age 18 to terminate a pregnancy.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS