The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a case that could decide whether abortion pills can be legally sent by mail into states that have laws in place that ban them. Judges on the panel signaled doubts as to whether the state of Louisiana had standing to challenge the Biden administration’s 2023 decision to remove the FDA’s in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone, which has resulted in a dramatic surge in at-home abortions, pills being mailed into pro-life states, medical emergencies, and women being tricked and forced into ingesting the drug.

Following the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe and returned abortion regulation to the states, the Biden administration pulled the rug out from under pro-life states by rescinding safeguards in place around the abortion pill mifepristone in January 2023, which required an in-person visit to a doctor before the drug could be prescribed. This safeguard ensured that a doctor could confirm that the woman was under the 10-week gestational limit required by the FDA and that the woman did not have an ectopic pregnancy, which could result in the death of the woman if mifepristone were to be taken.

To the shock of pro-life states and the movement, the Trump administration did not reinstate the safeguard after assuming office in January 2025 (one that even the former Obama administration had left in place), claiming that it is conducting a safety study of the abortion pill that has been ongoing for months as of June. The administration’s Justice Department has further asked federal courts to pause or dismiss Louisiana’s and other states’ lawsuits against the FDA over mifepristone.

Meanwhile, abortions have almost doubled since Dobbs due to the spread of the drug, online abortion pill vendors illegally dispensing drugs proliferate, and the list of women who have been forced or tricked into taking the pill against their will continues to grow.

Effects like these are what Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) points to in defense of her state’s ongoing lawsuit against the FDA, which she argues should give her state legal standing in its fight before the Fifth Circuit, where two judges appointed by former President Obama appear to be insisting they do not. “The Fifth Circuit panel could hardly have been more hostile toward Louisiana’s effort to protect women and enforce its laws protecting unborn children,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins noted in an X post Wednesday.

“Our clearest argument on [legal standing] was the intent that was expressed by the Biden administration when they pushed this rule out right after Dobbs,” Murrill pointed out during “This Week on Capitol Hill.” “I mean, the whole point of it was to facilitate a superhighway of mail-order drugs that could be sent into our states, even though it’s illegal.”

Murrill further noted that an estimated 1,000 abortions per month are occurring inside Louisiana due to mifepristone being illegally shipped into the state. “That number comes from abortion industry statistics. So those aren’t our numbers that we’re making up. Those are their numbers that they’ve provided in briefs and other documents that are estimating how many illegal abortions are occurring in Louisiana due to the influx of these pills. … [T]here are a lot of contraindications for the use of this medication, and that was tracked and carefully managed under the prior REMS protocols that required in-person dispensing so that a doctor could have a discussion with a woman about what her particular situation was, and to determine whether these pills were appropriate for her under any circumstances, even if it was not abortion related. I think that it is very critical that we get back to actual medical oversight with the use of these pills and respect for our laws.”

Murrill went on to emphasize that consequences from the deregulation of mifepristone are directly affecting states like Louisiana through taxpayer-funded medical and law enforcement costs.

“[W]e are bearing [the cost of] Medicaid programs dealing with women who show up in the emergency room and need care after taking these pills illegally,” she observed. “We have a baby in a NICU unit in Lafayette right now who was prematurely delivered after the girl’s father basically put these pills in her food without her knowledge and induced early labor. We see these situations arising all the time now, and we can show a direct correlation to the Biden administration’s policy because it is facilitating the flood of these pills into our state. And then the shield laws in some other states are contributing to our inability to hold people accountable and through other means. So it’s a complicated problem, and I think the federal government should be working with us to prevent this problem from occurring because it is unsafe for women.”

As to whether the Trump administration will follow through with its promised “review” of mifepristone and take action to once again regulate the abortion drug, Murrill expressed skepticism.

“I think it’s possible,” she allowed. “I mean, they’ve been talking about it now for two years and I just haven’t seen action. So I would like to see action. I think that it is an emergency situation. The health and safety of women is at stake, and I think they should act immediately [like] CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services]. You know, [with] wars over vaccine mandates [during] COVID, CMS acted very, very quickly to adopt emergency rules. The FDA could act very swiftly if it wanted to, so I do find it frustrating that the administration hasn’t moved more quickly. I think they can if they want to.”