The court upheld West Virginia’s 2022 law banning mifepristone for abortions in most cases. A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed West Virginia to restrict access to mifepristone, the pill used to end pregnancies that has emerged as a focal point of legal battles over abortion.

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.

West Virginia can block access to the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone, a federal appeals court said Tuesday in a landmark decision testing the reach of states’ power to restrict the medication despite its FDA approval.