The court restricts access to abortion throughout the United States by prohibiting the mailing of mifepristone

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common abortion methods in the United States by blocking the mailing of mifepristone prescriptions.

A panel of the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals required that abortion pills be distributed only in person at clinics.

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“Every abortion facilitated through an FDA action overturns Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is a human being from the moment of conception and therefore a legal person,’” the ruling said.

Since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed abortion bans to be enforced, prescriptions by mail have become a major means of providing abortions — including in states where bans are in place.

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“This will impact patients’ access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in the country,” said Julia Kaye, an ACLU staff attorney. “When telemedicine is restricted, rural communities, low-income people, people with disabilities, survivors of intimate partner violence, and communities of color suffer the most.”