By Andrew Chung
May 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily reinstated on Monday a federal rule allowing the abortion pill to be prescribed through telemedicine and dispensed through the mail, lifting a judicial decision that had blocked the regulation and narrowed access to the medication nationwide.
Justice Samuel Alito issued an interim order pausing a decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to re-impose an older federal rule requiring an in-person clinician visit to receive mifepristone. The 5th Circuit acted last Friday in a challenge to the rule by the Republican-led state of Louisiana.
The Supreme Court’s action, called an “administrative stay,” gives the justices more time to review emergency requests by Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, manufacturers of mifepristone, to ensure that the drug can be provided via telehealth and the mail while the legal challenge plays out in lower courts.
Alito ordered Louisiana to respond to the drugmakers’ requests by Thursday and indicated that the administrative stay would expire on May 11. The court would be expected to extend the interim stay or formally decide the requests by that time.
Alito, a member of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, acted because he is designated by the court to oversee emergency matters that arise in a group of states including Louisiana.
Evan Masingill, the chief executive officer of GenBioPro, which makes a generic version of mifepristone, welcomed the court’s action on Monday.
“With this critical temporary administrative stay granted, we anticipate some of the chaos and confusion inflicted on patients and providers over the weekend will subside. GenBioPro remains committed to making our evidence-based, essential medication available to people in the United States, and will continue to use all legal and regulatory avenues available to do so,” Masingill said.
Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a social media post: “The administrative stay is temporary, and I am confident life and the law will win in the end.”
The case puts the contentious issue of abortion back in front of the justices, who must confront another effort by abortion opponents to scale back access to mifepristone, with the November U.S. congressional elections looming.
The Supreme Court in 2024 unanimously rejected an initial bid by anti-abortion groups and doctors to roll back FDA regulations that had eased access to the drug, ruling that these plaintiffs lacked the necessary legal standing to pursue the challenge.
Mifepristone, given FDA regulatory approval in 2000, is taken 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 follow the court’s 2022 ruling that overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade precedent that had legalized abortion nationwide. That ruling has prompted 13 states to enact near-total bans on the procedure, while several others have sharply restricted access.
Since that ruling, anti-abortion advocates have targeted mifepristone, claiming that it is unsafe for women to take and that the FDA should not have approved it or relaxed limits on its use. The FDA has said mifepristone was approved based on scientific evidence and continues to be safe and effective when used as directed.
Louisiana sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2025 claiming that a rule adopted during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration in 2023 that eased access to mifepristone by eliminating the in-person dispensing requirement is illegal and undermines the state’s near-total abortion ban.
‘THIS CRITICAL DRUG’
“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,” Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northup said.
Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life advocacy group, said the stay issued by the court “leaves unresolved the very real concerns about the safety of these drugs and the decision under the Biden administration’s FDA to recklessly remove longstanding safeguards.”
Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro intervened in the litigation to defend the 2023 regulation. Republican President Donald Trump’s administration, citing an ongoing review of safety regulations concerning mifepristone, opposed the state’s challenge.
In April, U.S. Judge David Joseph in Lafayette, Louisiana, declined to block the regulation but agreed with the administration to put the case on hold pending the review. The 5th Circuit blocked the rule on May 1.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
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