US appeals court upholds West Virginia restriction on abortion pill
sales
[July 16, 2025]
By JOHN RABY
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a
lower court's decision to restrict abortion pill sales in West Virginia.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Richmond, Virginia, affirmed a ruling by a U.S. district judge in 2023
despite federal regulators’ approval of the abortion pill as a safe and
effective medication.
Most Republican-controlled states have enacted or adopted abortion bans
of some kind, including restricting abortion pills by default, since the
U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that
provided nationwide access to abortion. All have been challenged in
court. The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s
Health Organization.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Chambers had ruled that the
near-total abortion ban signed by then-Republican Gov. Jim Justice in
September 2022 took precedence over approvals from the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration.
"For us to once again federalize the issue of abortion without a clear
directive from Congress, right on the heels of Dobbs, would leave us one
small step short of defiance," 4th Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III
wrote for the court.
“One can of course agree or disagree with the Dobbs decision. But that
is not the point,” Wilkinson said. “At a time when the rule of law is
under blunt assault, disregarding the Supreme Court is not an option.”
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who took office in January, had
defended challenges to the abortion law when he served as attorney
general.
"Big win out of the 4th Circuit today,” Morrisey said in a statement.
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A patient prepares to take the first of two combination pills,
mifepristone, for a medication abortion during a visit to a clinic
in Kansas City, Kan., Oct. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
 GenBioPro Inc., the country’s only
manufacturer of a generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone,
had argued that the state cannot block access to a FDA-approved
drug. Chambers had dismissed the majority of GenBioPro's challenges,
finding there is “no disputing that health, medicine, and medical
licensure are traditional areas of state authority.”
Appeals judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin concurred and dissented in part
Tuesday, calling it a “troubling opinion.”
“Put plainly, this law erects barriers to life-saving healthcare for
countless West Virginians in ways not envisioned by Congress,”
Benjamin wrote.
Not at issue in the appeal was a challenge by GenBioPro concerning a
separate West Virginia law that stopped providers from prescribing
mifepristone by telehealth. Chambers had allowed that challenge to
proceed. The U.S. Supreme Court last year unanimously preserved
access to mifepristone, which is used in nearly two-thirds of all
abortions in the U.S. in 2023.
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