TRO automatically lifted after FDA ruling re: 2 contraceptives being non-abortive

After two years, the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on contraceptive implants Implanon and Implanon NXT will be lifted after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled they are not abortifacients. The FDA ruling was a pre-requisite in the Supreme Court’s sunset provision to lift the TRO. “After compliance with due process and upon the promulgation of the Food and Drug Administration, the Temporary Restraining Order would be deemed lifted if the questioned drugs and devices are found not abortifacients,” the Supreme Court said on April 26, 2017. In a resolution released on November 10, the FDA said that the “contraceptive products have been determined to be non-abortifacient.” This is also what Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno said last July after President Rodrigo Duterte criticized the High Court over the TRO. “As soon as the FDA certifies as provided by law that they are not abortifacient, the TRO is lifted. The reason why the TRO has not been lifted yet is not with the Court but with the FDA," Sereno said then. (TRO on Implanon contraceptive implants deemed lifted; Lian Buan @lianbuan Published 3:25 PM, November 13, 2017 Updated 4:02 PM, November 13, 2017)