The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ordered a temporary, through-Thursday, preservation of women's access to mifepristone, a drug used for medication abortions. Justice Samuel Alito's order halted the implementation of restrictions imposed by an appeals court that would have barred the drug from being dispensed through pharmacies and delivered by mail without an in-person visit to a physician.
The case arose after a lawsuit by Louisiana authorities challenging the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) rules concerning the prescription of mifepristone. The state argues that federal relaxations undermine its local abortion ban and questions the safety of the drug, which, however, was first approved in 2000 and has repeatedly been recognized by FDA experts as effective and safe. Lower courts sided with Louisiana, ordering a suspension of remote prescribing and mail delivery of the pills pending the proceedings.
Mifepristone, used in combination with misoprostol, is a key component of medication abortions, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of all pregnancy terminations in the U.S. in 2023. The current dispute echoes the situation three years ago, when the Supreme Court also blocked a similar decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that was issued in a lawsuit by antiabortion doctors. In 2024 the high court unanimously dismissed that suit, finding that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to bring it.
In the present proceedings, leading medical organizations, the pharmaceutical industry, and congressional Democrats warned against restricting access to the drug. Drugmakers said a ruling in favor of abortion opponents would undermine the entire drug-approval process. Over the years, the FDA itself has steadily relaxed restrictions on mifepristone, expanding who may prescribe it, simplifying dispensing procedures, and reducing the number of required adverse-event reports.
The administration of President Donald Trump has shown unusual restraint for such cases, not filing a brief with the Supreme Court, despite the federal rules at issue. This places the Republican administration in a difficult position: Trump depends on the support of abortion opponents, but polls and referendum results in several states show that Americans generally support the right to end a pregnancy. Justice Alito, the author of the 2022 decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, is considering emergency appeals from Louisiana.
Based on: Supreme Court temporarily extends women’s access to abortion pill