WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has restored wide access to an abortion pill by mail after a federal court ruling last week had blocked it.
With an order signed Monday, Justice Samuel Alito temporarily allowed women seeking abortions to obtain mifepristone at pharmacies or though the mail without an in-person doctor’s visit.
Last week, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously restricted access to the drug by mail. That ruling required mifepristone to only be distributed in person and at clinics. That overruled regulations set by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
In that ruling, Judge Kyle Duncan, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, said Louisiana’s contention that allowing the drug to be mailed there makes moot the state’s ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy.
“Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,’” the ruling states.
Mifepristone was approved in 2000, and it typically is used in combination with a second drug called misoprostol. Studies show the majority of abortions in the United States are provided by pills and that about a fourth of abortions nationally are prescribed via telehealth.
Alito’s order is in effect until May 11 as both sides of the case respond and the court looks at the issue further. But the order also could be extended.
Louisiana had sued in 2023 to restrict access to mifepristone, asserting that its availability undermined the ban there. Alito gave Louisiana until Thursday to respond to requests that the Fifth Circuit ruling be blocked.
Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, two drugmakers who manufacture mifepristone, had asked the Supreme Court to lift the Fifth Circuit ban.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill was not pleased with Monday’s Supreme Court order.
"Big abortion pharma claims they need an emergency stay because they will lose massive amounts of money if they can’t kill more babies quickly and efficiently by mail without medical oversight,” Murrill said. “The administrative stay is temporary, and I am confident life and the law will win in the end.”
