Federal Judge Susan Dlott ruled last week that an Ohio law that restricted a physician’s ability to prescribe mifepristone (also known as RU486) for a medical abortion is unconstitutional. Under the Ohio law, physicians in Ohio would have been unable to prescribe mifepristone after 49 days of gestation or in any other dose other than 600 milligrams, Kaiser reports. The law would have codified the Federal Drug Administration’s (FDA) guidelines for the drug, even though many physicians administer the drug at lower doses up to 63 days of gestation.
Judge Dlott previously issued a temporary injunction of the Ohio law in September 2004, one day before it would have become enforceable in September 2004. The law, which never actually went into effect, was found to be “impermissibly vague” by Dlott. According to the AP, Dlott ruled against the law because there was no exception to protect the health of a woman.
