In this archived photo from April 13, 2023, packages containing Mifepristone pills are shown at a reproductive health center in Rockville, Maryland.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, FILE
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has provisionally lengthened an existing order that preserves nationwide availability of the abortion medication mifepristone via mail and through virtual medical consultations.
The temporary suspension, initially set to lapse on Monday, will now remain enforced until 5 p.m. ET on Thursday. Alito did not provide further details regarding the determination.
The High Court is presently reviewing an urgent petition from pharmaceutical manufacturers of mifepristone to overrule a prior court’s decision that restricts the drug from being administered by telehealth providers or distributed through the postal service while legal proceedings are underway.
The state of Louisiana, which prohibits abortion at every stage of gestation with few exceptions, initially initiated the lawsuit with the purpose of obstructing mail-order accessibility to the abortion medication, asserting that federal regulators did not adequately assess safety concerns when eliminating the necessity of an in-person physician visit.
In this archived photo from April 13, 2023, packages containing Mifepristone pills are shown at a reproductive health center in Rockville, Maryland.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, FILE
Pharmaceutical corporations, healthcare organizations, and abortion rights proponents maintain that legally required evaluations were performed and that the medication demonstrates a decreased rate of negative reactions compared to penicillin and Viagra.
Mifepristone became the focal point of litigation following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022. In 2024, the justices unanimously dismissed a related legal challenge to mifepristone, concluding that the doctors and anti-abortion groups who filed suit regarding the drug lacked standing.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization centered on sexual and reproductive health, medication abortion was responsible for almost two-thirds of abortions in 2023. The oral medication is typically employed in conjunction with another medication, misoprostol, to trigger an abortion or to aid in managing an early miscarriage, up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com