The Supreme Court keeps a temporary order in place for mail access to mifepristone while it weighs whether to pause a 5th Circuit ruling.
The Supreme Court has kept the mail access window open for mifepristone, extending a temporary order that allows the abortion pill to be sent to patients for now.
Justice Samuel Alito issued a brief order on Monday saying his administrative stay. entered last week. will remain in effect until at least Thursday at 5 p.m.. The timing matters: it gives the justices more time to decide whether to freeze an appellate court ruling that had restored an FDA-related policy requiring mifepristone to be dispensed in person.
The dispute centers on the logistics of how patients receive the medication.. Two pharmaceutical companies that manufacture mifepristone. Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro. asked the Supreme Court earlier this month to set aside the U.S.. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit’s decision.. They also sought to preserve the ability of abortion providers to prescribe the drug online and mail it to patients while litigation continues.
Mifepristone is used together with misoprostol to end an early pregnancy. In 2023, medication accounted for 65% of all clinician-provided abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
At the heart of the current fight is a federal regulatory pathway that allows mifepristone to be mailed—and the legal challenges that aim to restrict it.. Last year, Louisiana officials sued the FDA over the agency’s regulation permitting mifepristone to be shipped through the mail.. State officials argued that the FDA’s policy effectively helps abortion providers bypass Louisiana’s near-total ban on abortion.
Louisiana’s lawsuit contended that mifepristone shipments into the state occur through ordinary postal channels, resulting in what officials described as “streams of mifepristone” by mail and “thousands” of unlawful abortions each year.
A federal district court had paused Louisiana’s challenge last month while the FDA reviews mifepristone’s safety.. But Louisiana officials appealed that pause. and the 5th Circuit agreed to temporarily block the 2023 FDA policy allowing remote prescribing and mailing of the medication.. In doing so. the unanimous 5th Circuit panel found that the availability enabled by the FDA’s action would negate Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions and undercut the state’s position that unborn children are legal persons from the moment of conception.
Now. with Alito’s emergency stay extended. the Supreme Court has additional time to determine whether the 5th Circuit’s restoration of a more restrictive dispensing approach should be halted while the justices consider the next step in the case.. For abortion access advocates and opponents alike. the question is less about the medical regimen itself and more about whether federal rules will allow the pill to be delivered to patients across state lines during ongoing legal review.
Supreme Court mifepristone FDA rule 5th Circuit abortion access mail order pill medication abortion
So basically they’re still letting people get the pill in the mail until Thursday? Not sure why they need to keep extending it like this, seems like forever.
I don’t get it. They’re talking about Alito and 5th Circuit and logistics like the post office is the villain. If it’s legal, just let it happen. If it’s not, why keep “temporary orders” open?
Wait, I thought mifepristone was banned in person dispensing or something? Like the “in person” thing is the 5th Circuit restored but now SCOTUS is undoing it by mail?? Makes no sense to me, I saw a TikTok that said it was already blocked.
Streams of mifepristone?? That sounds like they’re calling regular mail “illegal channels” which is wild. Also people always say “online and mail it” like that’s the whole story, but didn’t the FDA already approve it years ago? Feels like everyone’s just arguing over loopholes.