Affirm Block on Abortion Pill Dispensing Rule, Providers Say

Women’s health-care providers are urging a federal appeals court to uphold a ruling barring federal regulators from requiring in-person dispensing for a drug used to induce abortions during the public health emergency caused by the coronavirus.

The American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists and others told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit there is no reason to overturn a nationwide preliminary injunction allowing abortion patients to receive mifepristone through the mail or a delivery service instead of being required to pick it up at a doctor’s office, medical clinic, or hospital.

Mifepristone is part of a two-drug ...