By Daniel Wiessner
April 7 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday put on hold the state of Louisiana’s lawsuit seeking to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide while President Donald Trump’s administration conducts a review of the drug’s safety.
U.S. District Judge David Joseph in Lafayette, Louisiana, said the Republican-led state’s challenge to a 2023 rule allowing mifepristone to be dispensed through the mail should not proceed until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decides whether it will repeal the regulation.
“At this juncture, it is the completion of FDA’s promised good faith, evidence-based, and expeditious review [and] not ‘government by lawsuit’ that this Court finds to be in the public interest,” wrote Joseph, a Trump appointee.
The state had asked the judge to block the 2023 rule pending the outcome of its lawsuit, which Joseph denied. But he said the state could renew its bid when the case resumes and that he would likely grant it.
The judge said that the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had already ruled three years ago that previous FDA rules easing access to mifepristone were unlawful. The U.S. Supreme Court later said that the plaintiffs in that case lacked legal standing to challenge the rules, but did not address the merits.
The FDA launched a review of mifepristone, which it first approved in 2000 and is now used in 60% of U.S. abortions, last year. The review has reportedly been delayed until after the November midterm elections.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, said in a statement that her office would appeal Joseph’s decision and ask the 5th Circuit to block the 2023 rule.
Nearly half of U.S. states have banned or severely restricted access to the procedure since the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. That has driven a surge in medication abortion, which has spurred a series of legal battles over access to the drugs.
Medication abortion is a two-drug regimen consisting of mifepristone followed by misoprostol used to terminate a pregnancy within the first 10 weeks. The 2023 FDA rule eliminated a requirement that abortion drugs be dispensed in person.
Murrill’s office sued the FDA in October, claiming the agency had ignored the safety risks of easing access to mifepristone. Five other Republican-led states are pursuing broader lawsuits over regulations related to mifepristone, including the FDA’s initial approval of the drug in 2000.
The FDA asked Joseph to pause Louisiana’s case pending its review, and has also argued that Louisiana lacks legal standing to bring the case.
Louisiana and Texas have also sued or indicted healthcare providers from other states for prescribing mifepristone to their residents, testing so-called shield laws in states including New York and California that protect providers against out-of-state investigations and prosecutions.
Drug companies GenBioPro and Danco Laboratories have intervened in Louisiana’s lawsuit to defend the FDA regulation. The companies in court filings have said there is no scientific evidence that supports reversing the FDA’s 2023 decision to stop requiring the abortion drug mifepristone to be dispensed in person.
The brand-name version of mifepristone, Mifeprex, is Danco’s only product, and GenBioPro derives most of its revenue from the generic version, the companies said in the filings.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Nia Williams and Matthew Lewis)
