Supreme Court for Now Restores Abortion Pill Access by Mail (2)

The US Supreme Court temporarily restored the ability of patients to get a widely used abortion pill by mail, pausing a ruling that required people to visit a healthcare provider.

The administrative stay, issued by Justice Samuel Alito, gives the high court more time to figure out how to deal with a three-day-old appellate ruling that upended abortion access by barring providers from mailing mifepristone. Alito’s order extends until May 11.

The drug’s manufacturers, Danco Laboratories LLC and GenBioPro Inc., asked the Supreme Court to intervene, saying in separate requests that the 5th US Court of Appeals created chaos by restricting access to mifepristone even in states where abortion is legal.

Abortion-rights advocates called the order a positive, though temporary, development. “No one can rest easy when our ability to get this safe, effective medication for abortion and miscarriage care still hangs in the balance,” said Julia Kaye, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project.

Peggy Nance, president of the anti-abortion Concerned Women for America, said the group was “saddened” by the decision. “But we are hopeful that the court will permit the 5th Circuit’s ruling to stand, once it has been fully briefed on the issues at stake this week,” she said.

The Republican-appointed Alito is the justice assigned to manage emergency requests involving the 5th Circuit, which is perhaps the country’s most conservative federal appeals court. As is typical with administrative stays, his order didn’t provide any explanation or say whether he consulted with his colleagues before issuing it.

The 5th Circuit ruling Friday was a victory for Louisiana in a lawsuit challenging Food and Drug Administration rules permitting mifepristone to be prescribed by mail.

The FDA expanded access to mifepristone during Joe Biden’s presidency and dropped a requirement that patients physically visit a medical provider. Louisiana sued last year, contending that the FDA was relying on flawed data. The companies and reproductive rights groups say mifepristone is safe.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said last year that the government was conducting a safety review of mifepristone, but Bloomberg News reported in December that the FDA was slow-walking the effort until after the midterm elections. HHS denied the report.

The high court grappled with similar issues in 2023 and 2024 after a federal judge ordered mifepristone pulled from the market. The Supreme Court ultimately kept mifepristone fully available, ruling the anti-abortion doctors and organizations that sued lacked legal “standing” because they weren’t directly affected by the FDA’s actions.

In the latest case, the 5th Circuit said Louisiana had standing because the availability of mifepristone was undermining the state’s abortion ban. The 5th Circuit also said the state was having to pay medical costs for patients who suffered complications from mifepristone.

The cases are Danco v. Louisiana, 25a1207, and GenBioPro v. Louisiana, 25a1208.

(Updates with reaction in fifth paragraph.)

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Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman at ewasserman2@bloomberg.net

Greg Stohr

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