New Orleans: A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common means of abortion in the US by blocking mailing of prescriptions of mifepristone.

A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the abortion pill be distributed only in-person at clinics.

“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 ruling states.

Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v Wade and allowed enforcement of abortion bans, prescriptions by mail has become a major way that abortions are provided — including to states where bans are in place.

“This is going to affect patients’ access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in the nation,” said Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer. “When telemedicine is restricted, rural communities, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, survivors of intimate partner violence and communities of colour suffer the most.”