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Supreme Court asked to restore access to abortion pill by mail
WASHINGTON — A manufacturer of the abortion pill mifepristone asked the Supreme Court on Saturday to immediately restore full access to the medication, putting the contentious issue of abortion back before the justices in an election year.
The request came after a lower court on Friday temporarily restricted abortion providers nationwide from prescribing the pills by telemedicine and sending them to patients by mail. If the order on Friday by a federal appeals court is upheld, it could sow confusion and upend a major avenue for abortion access across the country — not just in states with abortion bans. About a quarter of abortions in the United States are now provided through telemedicine.
Louisiana officials had sued the Food and Drug Administration to restrict access to mifepristone, saying the availability of the medication by mail had allowed abortions to continue in the state despite its near-total ban on abortion.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday sided with Louisiana and essentially reimposed an FDA requirement that healthcare providers prescribe mifepristone only after seeing patients in person. That rule was first lifted in 2021. The 5th Circuit ordered that in-person dispensing of mifepristone be reinstated until the Louisiana lawsuit made its way through the courts.
Two mifepristone manufacturers, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, are also defendants in the Louisiana lawsuit. On Saturday, Danco filed an emergency request asking the Supreme Court to lift the lower court’s order, which applied to patients across the country.
The company said the 5th Circuit’s ruling “injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions,” and forces Danco, providers, patients and pharmacies “all to guess at what is allowed and what is not.”
In a filing Friday night asking the 5th Circuit to pause its order, Danco said that the ruling would cause “chaos.” The court had not responded to that request by Saturday afternoon.
The Trump administration has defended the FDA in court, but has not said in this case, or in public statements, whether it supports keeping in place the regulations that allow for pills to be mailed. Rather, it has said that the FDA is conducting a review of mifepristone. It has also asked the court to delay the lawsuit proceedings until that review is complete.
https://www.wral.com/news/local/politics-supreme-court-mail-abortion-pill/
mifepristone, Mephistopheles