for more on this latest decision I'm joined by Catherine Weiss partner at Lowenstein Sandler and part of a national network of lawyers advising clients on this case Catherine wise good to talk to you again help us understand what this latest ruling means for the average person so the fifth circuit restored the restrictions on the delivery of Memphis to what they were before the year 2016. they definitely are second guessing what the FDA has approved that is for sure and their Authority is not to apply these conditions what they did in fact was hold that the revision of these conditions over the last several years was likely to be outside of the fda's authority so these restrictions that the drug was available only until seven weeks gestation that it had to be that there had to be three in-person doctors visits associated with it that only a physician could prescribe it these kinds of conditions existed between the year 2001 the drug was first approved and the year 2016 when the FDA started to re-evaluate and reduce reduce the restrictions associated with the delivery of this drug and what the fifth circuit did is restores take us back in time to 2016. it didn't make these restrictions up it just tightened the restrictions back to where they were before the FDA considered new safety data yeah and as far as what I read in the ruling it essentially said that um you know a lot of women had this medication had a medicated abortion while those restrictions were in place and so as far as the court was concerned it doesn't affect or make a quote untenable situation as would if it completely banned it Catherine I'm wondering though if any of this matters if this ruling matters since we know that the Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to take this case well first of all asking the Supreme Court to take the case doesn't mean the Supreme Court will take the case the first question is is the Supreme Court going to decide to review this decision and we'll see we don't know yet even if it does however it is always relevant what the lower court has said the Supreme Court sits to identify and correct legal Errors By the lower courts so the analysis that the fifth circuit used is going to be relevant in the Supreme Court because that's the analysis that will be under review one of the very troubling things about the fifth circuit decision and the district court decision is that they reassess the safety data in a way that is out of state with how scientists View Medical Data so for example they look at the complication rate of mifepristone in isolation when what they ought to be asking is how does it compare with the Alternatives and the answer to that question is childbirth has a complication rate many many times higher than the complication rate of any first trimester abortion by any method the complication rates of any first trimester abortion are well below one percent and medical abortion in particular has a complication rate of about about 1 in 322 women will have a serious complication resulting from a medical abortion these are very low complication rates especially compared with alternative procedures Catherine Weiss partner at Lowenstein Sandler thank you so much for your time thank you [Music] [Music]