Supreme Court Blocks Restrictions on Mail Delivery of Abortion Pill Mifepristone

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the abortion pill mifepristone can continue to be accessed by mail.

Two manufacturers of the pill sought the high court's intervention after a lower court imposed significant restrictions on mifepristone as part of an ongoing lawsuit. The court's order blocks those limitations while the litigation proceeds. Access to the pill will likely remain unchanged until the lawsuit is resolved, possibly next year.

Abortion pills represent the most common method of terminating pregnancies in the United States, particularly in states with abortion bans.

In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration allowed doctors to prescribe the pills without in-person visits. Women can now receive mifepristone by mail or pick it up at a pharmacy through telemedicine.

Louisiana sued the FDA last October to stop delivery of mifepristone. Earlier this month, an appeals court temporarily reinstated the in-person requirement for abortion pills in response to the lawsuit.

"Every abortion facilitated by FDA's action cancels Louisiana's ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that 'every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,'" the appeals court wrote.

The two mifepristone manufacturers then asked the Supreme Court to intervene while preparing an emergency case. The Thursday ruling, known as a stay, came from the court's emergency docket with no attached reasoning. It stays in effect until the justices decide whether to hear the manufacturers' case.

Justice Thomas dissented, writing that since mailing mifepristone is illegal in Louisiana, the manufacturers cannot block a court order "based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise."

Mifepristone is the first drug in a two-pill regimen recommended by the FDA to end a pregnancy. It remains widely available in states where abortion is legal.

The drugs' availability expanded in April 2021, when the FDA lifted the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone during the Covid-19 pandemic. The following year, the Supreme Court overturned its decades-old Roe v. Wade decision, which had established a constitutional right to abortion. That ruling allowed states to impose their own bans.