The appellate court has curtailed mail-order access to mifepristone, curbing the most common method of reproductive care. The ruling establishes a new national standard where federal judges act as the final authority on pharmaceutical distribution.
NEW ORLEANS — The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its latest restriction on reproductive medicine on Wednesday afternoon. Outside the federal building, the humid Louisiana air smelled faintly of chicory and institutional decay, while inside, a rusted ceiling fan ticked like a failing metronome over the mahogany benches. In a ruling that further isolates the American populace from standard medical care, the judges moved to heavily restrict the distribution of the abortion pill mifepristone by mail, effectively reclassifying the postal service as a rogue distributor of contraband healthcare.
The decision overrides the Food and Drug Administration, instructing the agency to stand by while appellate judges review the complex chemical properties of medication using their law degrees. The Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal syndicate behind the lawsuit, celebrated the tribunal's intervention as a necessary check on postal efficiency.
We simply believe that before a patient receives an FDA-approved medication in the mail, a panel of men in robes should have the opportunity to intercept the package and express their personal feelings about it.