Case: 23-10362 Document: 543-1 Page: 3 Date Filed: 08/16/2023
are harmed when they treat those kinds of patients.
According to the Doctors, when they treat women who are experiencing complications after taking mifepristone, they are required to perform or complete an abortion, or otherwise required to participate in a process that facilitates abortion. They maintain that personally conducting those procedures violates their sincerely held moral beliefs. The Doctors also contend that treatment of mifepristone patients diverts time and resources away from their ordinary patients, causes substantial mental and emotional distress, and exposes them to heightened malpractice risk and increased insurance costs.
Seeking to prevent those alleged injuries, the Medical Organizations and Doctors moved for preliminary injunctive relief. The district court granted the motion, but rather than entering a traditional injunction, the court stayed the effective date of each of the challenged actions under 5 U.S.C. § 705. FDA appealed, as did Intervenor Danco Laboratories, LLC, the pharmaceutical company that distributes Mifeprex.
After extensive briefing and oral argument, we hold that the district court’s stay order should be vacated in part and affirmed in part. We conclude that the Medical Organizations and Doctors’ claim as to the 2000 Approval is likely barred by the statute of limitations. Accordingly, that component of the district court’s order must be vacated. This means that, until final judgment, Mifeprex will remain available to the public under the conditions for use that existed in 2016.
We also vacate the portion of the order relating to the 2019 Generic Approval because the Medical Organizations and Doctors have not shown that they are injured by that particular action. The generic version of mifepristone will also be available under the same conditions as Mifeprex.
We affirm the components of the stay order that concern the 2016 Amendments and the 2021 Non-Enforcement Decision. Those agency ac-
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