The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a ruling that removes the national block a federal judge placed on the dangerous abortion pill. However, the appeals court also banned mail-order abortions that put women’s lives at risk, condemned the improper FDA approval process for the drug and restored strict limits on the drug meant to protect women’s health that the Biden administration removed.

In its order, a three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit partly overruled Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas, who last week declared that the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone in 2000 was not valid. That allow the dangerous abortion pill to continue being sold nationwide.

[Karen will have more on this in a little over an hour, and I will have more on the DoJ response as well. This is a half-a-loaf decision which gives wins to both sides, but it also makes clear that the appeals court has some reservations about the FDA’s decision-making process, too. — Ed]