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The Supreme Court of the United States temporarily returned the order allowing a the abortion pill delivered via telemedicine and delivered by mail, removing the legal ban that limited access to medicine worldwide.
Justice Samuel Alito issued the temporary order Monday, after a week’s stay of a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for the United States Circuit in New Orleans to reinstate an old law requiring a doctor to prescribe mifepristone.
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The Fifth Circuit acted against the Republican-led state in Louisiana.
The Supreme Court The move, called the “supervision period”, gives judges more time to review emergency requests by two mifepristone manufacturers to ensure the drug can be dispensed via telehealth and mail order while the legal crisis unfolds.
Alito ordered Louisiana to respond to the drug makers’ requests by Thursday and indicated that the review period will end on May 11. The court is expected to extend the deadline or formally rule on the requests by then.
Alito, one of the court’s nine justices, took action because he was appointed by the court to oversee emergency cases in a group of states that include Louisiana.
The case brings the issue of abortion back before the judges, who must face other efforts by abortion opponents to limit access to mifepristone, as the November US congressional elections approach.
The court in 2024 unanimously rejected an initial request by anti-abortion groups and doctors to change the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations that limited access to the drug, saying that the plaintiffs did not have standing to meet the challenge.
Mifepristone, granted FDA approval in 2000, is taken with another drug called misoprostol for abortion, a method that now accounts for more than 60 percent of abortions in the US.
The ongoing battle over abortion rights follows a 2022 court decision that overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
The ruling has led to 13 countries imposing partial bans on the scheme, while several others have imposed strict entry restrictions.
Louisiana sued the FDA last year, arguing that a law passed under former US President Joe Biden, a Democrat – a law that limited the use of mifepristone by removing the need for a delivery – is illegal and impedes the state’s ability to prevent abortions.
The makers of the pills, Danco Laboratories, and GenBioPro, which makes the generic version, intervened in the lawsuits to protect the 2023 law. The administration of the current US President Donald Trump, a Republican, cited the ongoing review of safety regulations regarding mifepristone and opposed the government’s actions.
In April, U.S. District Judge David Joseph in Lafayette, Louisiana, refused to block the order but agreed with officials to stay the case pending a review. The 5th Circuit struck down the law on May 1.
The legal and political controversy surrounding the availability of mifepristone has dominated the debate abortion in the US over the past few years.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the high court’s decision on Monday was a “short-term development”.
“The Supreme Court must end this baseless attack on our reproductive rights, once and for all,” Julia Kaye, senior attorney for the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement.
Ever since the Supreme Court struck down abortion rights in 2022, Democrats have been taking over. on being unloved about banning the policy and emphasizing this issue in their elections.
Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, welcomed the Supreme Court decision on Monday, but said, “This battle has just begun.”
“We will stop at nothing to stop Republicans from starting to decriminalize abortion,” Schumer wrote on X.
On Monday, Republican Senator Josh Hawley cited the health risks associated with mifepristone, and urged lawmakers to act.
“Now is the time for Congress to ban its use in abortion,” he said in a press release.
