The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued an administrative stay that restores telehealth and mail access to the abortion pillmifepristone through May 11.
The ruling was made in response to an emergency request from manufacturers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro to overturn a Friday ruling by a federal appeals court in New Orleans, which prevented mifepristone from being prescribed over the phone and sent through the mail in the United States. The state of Louisiana had contended that the online availability of mifepristone undermines its 2022 ban on abortions.
A decision from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals that reinstated a nationwide requirement that the medication be obtained in person is temporarily on hold, Danco told the Supreme Court in its appeal that the 5th Circuit order "injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions." GenBioPro, which makes a generic version of the drug, said in its own appeal that the lower court's decision risked "abruptly cutting off access for patients nationwide."
The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito temporarily allows women seeking abortions to obtain the pill without an in-person visit to a doctor.
"This ruling is not final -- keep watching," Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. "Getting abortion pills through telehealth has been a lifeline for women since Roe v. Wade was overturned. There is no reason people shouldn't be able to get mifepristone at a pharmacy or through the mail. Louisiana's attempt to restrict access is political and not based in science or medicine. Americans deserve access to this critical drug that has been FDA approved for 25 years."
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, denounced the ruling. "Pill pushers receive every benefit of the doubt, including today, as Justice Alito allows pill traffickers and big pharma to operate temporarily while arguments are sent to the court," she said in a statement.
The majority of U.S. abortions currently are obtained through medications, usually a combination of mifepristone and a second drug, misoprostol. The availability of those drugs has blunted the impact of abortion bans that many Republican-led states have sought to enforce since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. The Food and Drug Administration announced in September that it would conduct a review of mifepristone's safety.
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