A federal appeals court late Friday blocked the ability of doctors to prescribe the abortion pill mifepristone through telehealth and dispensed through the mail.

A three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Louisiana in a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The court issued a temporary nationwide injunction that reinstates a 2021 nationwide requirement that mifepristone must be prescribed and dispensed in person.

Mifepristone is one of the two drugs commonly used in medication abortions.

The FDA permanently lifted the in-person requirement in 2023, leading to a surge in pills prescribed over the internet in the wake of the Dobbs ruling that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.

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