US Supreme Court lets abortion pill mail delivery restart for now
By Andrew Chung
May 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday temporarily reinstated a federal rule allowing the abortion pill to be prescribed via telemedicine and distributed by mail, striking down a judicial order blocking the regulation and restricting access to the drug nationwide.
Justice Samuel Alito issued a temporary order pausing a decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate an old federal rule requiring an in-person visit from a clinician to receive mifepristone. The 5th Circuit was challenging the Republican-led state of Louisiana.
The Supreme Court’s so-called “administrative stay” decision gives justices more time to review emergency requests from two mifepristone manufacturers to ensure the drug is available via telehealth and mail while the legal battle continues in lower courts.
Alito ordered Louisiana to “respond to drug manufacturers’ requests by Thursday” and stated that the administrative period would end on May 11. The court is expected to extend the interim period or formally decide on the requests by then.
Alito, a member of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, took the action because he was appointed by the court to oversee emergencies in a group of states that include Louisiana.
The case puts the controversial issue of abortion back before the justices; The justices are having to confront another effort by abortion opponents to reduce access to mifepristone as November’s U.S. congressional elections approach.
In 2024, the court unanimously rejected an initial bid by anti-abortion groups and doctors to roll back FDA regulations that facilitated access to the drug, ruling that these plaintiffs did not have the legal standing to continue the fight.
Mifepristone, which was given FDA regulatory approval in 2000, is used with another drug called misoprostol to perform medication abortions, a method that now accounts for more than 60% of all abortions in the United States.
The ongoing battles over abortion rights are fueled by the court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. which legalized abortion nationwide. It follows the 2022 decision that overturned the Wade precedent. This decision led 13 states to impose a near-total ban on the procedure, while several other states sharply restricted access.
Louisiana sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2025, arguing that a rule passed during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration in 2023 that made it easier to access mifepristone by eliminating the requirement for in-person dispensing was illegal and undermined the state’s near-total abortion ban.
Danco Laboratories, the pill’s maker, and GenBioPro, which produces the generic version, intervened in the case to defend the 2023 regulation. Republican President Donald Trump’s administration has opposed the state’s challenge, citing its ongoing review of safety regulations for mifepristone.
In April, U.S. Judge David Joseph in Lafayette, Louisiana, refused to block the regulation but agreed with the administration to put the case on hold pending review. The 5th Circuit blocked the rule on May 1.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
