The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Arizona regulations curbing access to abortion-inducing drugs by prohibiting off-label uses of the medication will remain on hold while a legal challenge to those rules proceeds under judicial review, according to The Associated Press.
The regulations being removed were adopted in a Republican-backed 2012 abortion statute stating any drugs prescribed for the termination of a pregnancy in Arizona be used in strict accordance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol and instructions on the label, the AP reported.
At issue in this case is a physician's discretion to go "off-label" and use the drug as the doctor believes best under the circumstances, according to the AP.
The court of appeals said clinics including Planned Parenthood had shown a likelihood of success in their claim that Arizona's law imposes an undue burden on a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy, the AP reported. A spokeswoman for state Attorney General Tom Horne said the state was weighing whether to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel reverses a lower-court decision in late March rejecting a request by Planned Parenthood and a women's health clinic in Tucson to block Arizona's abortion pill regulations from taking effect while the plaintiffs sought to overturn the restrictions, according to the AP.
The FDA has approved the so-called abortion pill RU-486 for use within seven weeks' gestation, the AP reported. Arizona's rules would outlaw its use at the direction of doctors who wish to prescribe it for later in a pregnancy.
The San Francisco-based appeals court in April had sided with Planned Parenthood in temporarily blocking enforcement of the regulations until the 9th Circuit judges could hear arguments in the case, the AP reported.
"This decision is a victory for women's health," Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood Federation of America president, said in a statement, according to the AP.
