A US court has issued an order significantly restricting access to the abortion pill mifepristone by mail.
The Friday decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily reinstated a requirement that abortion pills be obtained in person, rather than allow it by mail or at a pharmacy through telemedicine.
The move in particular curbs access to medication abortion - the most common method of terminating pregnancies in the US - in states where abortion is banned.
The decision, which stems from a lawsuit brought by the state of Louisiana, pauses a 2023 regulation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that allowed doctors to send pills without seeing patients in person.
"Every abortion facilitated by FDA's action cancels Louisiana's ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that 'every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,'" the appeals court wrote in the order.
