A divided federal appeals court on July 15 upheld a West Virginia law that bans an abortion drug called mifepristone in most situations.
A majority of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit panel said that the West Virginia statute, the Unborn Child Protection Act, is not preempted by a 2007 federal law that outlined how the Food and Drug Administration exercises its authority over approved high-risk drugs.
U.S. Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, writing for the majority, pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 opinion striking down Roe v. Wade, the court’s decades-old ruling that largely prevented states from limiting abortion, or the ending of a pregnancy….