Federal Appeals Court Upheld West Virginia Ban on Medication Abortion. Now What?

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https://truthout.org/articles/federal-appeals-court-upheld-west-virginia-ban-on-medication-abortion-now-what/

Federal Appeals Court Upheld West Virginia Ban on Medication Abortion. Now What?

If the Supreme Court gets involved, it could set national precedent for states to ban medications approved by the FDA.

By Lauren Rankin , TRUTHOUT
Published July 26, 2025

federal appeals court just made it a lot harder for West Virginians to access abortion and in the process may have given abortion opponents a new path to banning abortion through the courts. And the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and federal agencies may have taken a serious blow.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a divided decision among a three-judge panel, upheld West Virginia’s draconian law that bans FDA-approved medication abortion. This marks the first time a federal court has allowed a ban on medication abortion to remain in effect, outright sanctioning a ban on the most common form of abortion care in the U.S. Not only that, but it undermines the FDA’s authority and ability to regulate medication nationwide.

Medication abortion — a regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol — accounted for 63 percent of all abortions in the U.S. as of 2023. Mifepristone has been approved by the FDA for a quarter of a century, and it’s extremely safe, with fewer complications than Viagra and penicillin. It’s become even more popular as a means of pregnancy termination since the Dobbs decision in 2022. In 2020, medication abortion accounted for just over half — 53 percent — of abortions. Now that some states, like New York, have instituted shield laws to protect abortion providers from out-of-state litigation, telehealth providers in protected states have been able to prescribe medication abortion to patients in banned states. As abortion bans have spread, shield laws have become a critical tool to protect abortion providers, funders, and support volunteers in protected states from being criminalized in states with bans. And, with the proliferation of online medication abortion providers like Aid Access and Plan C, folks in states with abortion bans have still been able to covertly access medication abortion and have it shipped directly to their homes.

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(I misread federal court as feral court.)