Supreme Court allows abortion pill to remain available by mail nationwide

The decision indefinitely blocks an appeals court ruling that would have restricted availability of the drug, especially in states with strict anti-abortion laws.

May 14, 2026
By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ensured Thursday that the abortion pill mifepristone can continue to be available by mail without an in-person appointment with a clinician.

A ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 1 had imperiled widespread access to the pill. Now, the Supreme Court has granted emergency requests brought by drugmakers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro seeking to block that ruling.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-abortion-pill-mifepristone-available-mail-rcna344081

Trump Thought He’d Escaped the Abortion Trap

Now the Supreme Court is facing a blockbuster case that threatens to spin out of control.

Nina Martin, Mother Jones
May 12, 2026

By all accounts, President Donald Trump really, really did not want abortion to become a major issue this election year. But here we are, six months before the midterms, and abortion pills are back at the Supreme Court, as the state of Louisiana and abortion drug manufacturers ask to fast-track oral arguments in what is shaping up to be a blockbuster case. Conservatives are invoking the Comstock Act. And Trump’s Food and Drug Administration has been AWOL, while its top official has been forced to resign.

The swift escalation of the showdown between Louisiana and the FDA over telemedicine abortion highlights just how little control Trump has over the abortion issue—both in terms of the timeline and the outcome. Meanwhile, the case is sparking confusion, uncertainty, and dread among patients, providers, and advocates across the US.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/05/mifepristone-scotus-trump-thought-hed-escaped-the-abortion-trap/

USA – ‘Chaos’ followed ruling on abortion drug access, and providers say more uncertainty lies ahead

By Deidre McPhillips
May 6, 2026

Like on many other days, the last thing Leah Coplon did before she left work Friday was to check a litigation tracker. Coplon, the director of clinical operations for Abortion on Demand, was watching for any updates about legal action on abortion pills. Around 5 p.m., it was quiet.

Coplon made a short commute to downtown Portland, Maine, to attend a May Day rally. She had just arrived when she got the news.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/health/abortion-providers-mifepristone-chaos-court

06.05.2026

Massachusetts Abortion Access Project

USA – Drugmaker files emergency appeal to restore abortion pill access

A federal appeals court shut off telehealth access Friday.

By Alice Miranda Ollstein
May 2, 2026

A company that makes the abortion drug mifepristone asked the Supreme Court on Saturday to hit pause on Friday’s lower court ruling that cut off telemedicine access to the pills nationwide, including in states where abortion is legal.

The emergency appeal asks the high court to temporarily restore a federal policy that allows the pills to be prescribed online and delivered by mail, arguing that failing to do so would cause “immediate chaos” and leave patients around the country in limbo.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/02/abortion-pill-telehealth-mifepristone-supreme-court-00903861

The Forgotten—and Incredibly Important—History of the Abortion Pill

Mifepristone took longer to get approved than most drugs—but not because it was unsafe.

Nina Martin, Mother Jones
Feb 7, 2025

At his Senate confirmation hearings to head the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. surprised no one by admitting that he planned to order a new review of the safety of abortion pills. While Kennedy claimed that President Donald Trump has not taken a position—yet—on medication abortion, “he’s made it clear to me that he wants me to look at the safety issues,” Kennedy said. “And I’ll ask [agencies] to do that.”

This, of course, is exactly what anti-abortion groups have been pushing for. Since 2022, when the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, abortion opponents have been ramping up unfounded claims that mifepristone and misoprostol are dangerous. Their efforts have included a flurry of letters to the new administration, explicit directives in the far right’s Project 2025 blueprint for the second Trump term, and a barrage of ever-more-extreme lawsuits and state bills.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/abortion-pill-forgotten-history-attacks-mifepristone-ru486-anti-abortion-extremists-new-book/

07.02.2025

Commentary

abortion pills

Abortion Pills: US History and Politics

Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Feminist Majority Foundation

Food and Drug Administration

manual vacuum aspiration

Reproductive Health Technologies Project

Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies

Roussel-Uclaf

RU-486

Searle

Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Company

shield laws

telehealth abortion

telehealth clinics

telemedicine abortion

Canadian non-profit that facilitates abortion pill access sees surge in U.S. requests

By Hannah Alberga, The Canadian Press
November 27, 2024

A Canadian non-profit that helps women obtain the abortion pill in countries with restrictions says it saw a fourfold increase in U.S. requests after the presidential election.

The majority of inquiries came from women who were not pregnant, suggesting many want the drug on hand in case they need it, says Venny Ala-Siurua, executive director of Women on Web.

Ala-Siurua, based in Montreal, says some women fear abortions could become illegal or harder to access in the U.S. after Donald Trump takes office.

Continued: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/11/27/canadian-non-profit-that-facilitates-abortion-pill-access-sees-surge-in-u-s-requests/

U.S. Supreme Court unanimously strikes down legal challenge to abortion pill mifepristone

The ruling preserves access to the mail-order medication nationwide.

By Devin Dwyer
June 13, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled a group of doctors lacked legal standing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration's regulation of the abortion pill mifepristone, preserving access to the medication nationwide.

The unanimous opinion was authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The case put abortion access back in the spotlight for the court for the first time since its conservative majority voted to overrule Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-unanimously-strikes-legal-challenge-abortion-pill/story?id=110439079

13.06.2024

abortion pills

Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

Food and Drug Administration

Katie Daniel

mifepristone

Roe v. Wade

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America

U.S. Supreme Court

An 1873 law banned the mailing of boxing photos. Could it block abortion pills, too?

BY: JENNIFER SHUTT
APRIL 5, 2024

WASHINGTON — An anti-obscenity law enacted in 1873 that hasn’t been enforced in decades shot to the forefront of the nation’s abortion debate in the past week thanks to two U.S. Supreme Court justices, amid expectations a future Republican president would use the law to order a nationwide ban on medication abortion.

The Comstock Act, which prohibited the mailing of anatomy textbooks and boxing photographs as well as contraceptives, drew fresh attention after Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas during March 26 oral arguments seemed to suggest the law would block the mailing of mifepristone.

Continued: https://missouriindependent.com/2024/04/05/an-1873-law-banned-the-mailing-of-boxing-photos-could-it-block-abortion-pills-too/

USA – The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Biggest Fear

BY DAHLIA LITHWICK
MARCH 25, 2024

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a case that could determine national access to mifepristone, one of two pills used as part of medication abortion. In this week’s episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick spoke with Carrie N. Baker, whose book, History and Politics of Abortion Pills in the United States, is being published by Amherst College Press this year.

Lithwick and Baker discussed the anti-abortion movement’s decadeslong efforts to target the abortion pill, how those efforts hampered FDA approval of the medication in the first place, and how having easier access to reproductive care through a pill that can be sent in the mail and taken at home fundamentally threatens the strategy of those seeking to dismantle abortion rights in this country. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/03/abortion-pill-supreme-court-preview-mifepristone-history.html

Abortion pill mifepristone: An explainer and research roundup about its history, safety and future

Amid pending court cases and ballot initiatives, journalistic coverage of medication abortion has never been more crucial. This piece aims to help inform the narrative with scientific evidence.

by Naseem S. Miller
November 1, 2023

Access to mifepristone, a medication that’s used for the safe termination of early pregnancy, hangs in the balance while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take up a case that could determine the legal future of the abortion medication.

In August, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mifepristone should not be prescribed past the seventh week of pregnancy, prescribed via telemedicine, or shipped to patients through the mail. In September, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to consider a challenge to that ruling.

Continued: https://journalistsresource.org/health/mifepristone-research-roundup/