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 – 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

Diverse Stakeholders Implore Supreme Court to Preserve Abortion Pill Access

If the justices take up the case, they could hear oral arguments early next year and issue a decision by late June 2024, influencing fall elections.

10/19/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER

On Thursday, Oct. 12, a wide range of organizations filed 14 amicus curiae briefs supporting a Justice Department petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Fifth Circuit decision imposing nationwide limits on access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Supporting the government’s appeal were reproductive rights organizations, medical and legal experts, patient advocacy groups, 257 members of Congress, 23 states and D.C., over 600 state legislators, state and local governments and officials, and pharmaceutical industry representatives, including GenBioPro, which makes a generic form of mifepristone.

“This legal attack on medical abortion has no basis in law or fact,” said GenBioPro CEO Evan Masingill. “Decades of science support mifepristone’s safety and efficacy. GenBioPro firmly believes that all people, regardless of income, gender, race or geography, have a right to access evidence-based healthcare and safe and effective medicines, and that includes medical abortion.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/19/supreme-court-abortion-pill-mifepristone/

USA – Pharmacies begin dispensing abortion pills

A handful of pharmacies are offering the pills 10 months after the Biden administration allowed them to do so.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and LAUREN GARDNER
Oct 6, 2023

A handful of independent pharmacies across the country have quietly begun dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone under new rules created by the Biden administration earlier this year, even as a looming Supreme Court case could reimpose restrictions or ban the drugs entirely.

Thousands of branches of major pharmacy chains are poised to join them — making the drugs more accessible to millions of people nationwide and kicking off a new phase of the legal and political battle over the most popular method of ending a pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/06/pharmacies-begin-dispensing-abortion-pills-00120397

West Virginia – Judge rejects argument by abortion pill maker that state ban violates Constitution

GenBioPro claimed West Virginia's ban on mifepristone was at odds with the FDA.

By Anne Flaherty
August 24, 2023

West Virginia has the right to block the sale of the abortion drug mifepristone, even though federal regulators have decided the medication is safe, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers is a blow to abortion rights groups that had hoped to strike down state bans using a novel and somewhat arcane legal argument invoking an idea known as "federal preemption."

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/judge-rejects-argument-abortion-pill-maker-state-ban/story?id=102545092

24.08.2023

News

Evan Masingill

Food and Drug Administration

Appeals court says abortion pill mifepristone should remain on the market but rules in favor of limiting access

By Tierney Sneed
Wed August 16, 2023

A federal appeals court on Wednesday wiped away a lower court’s ruling that would’ve taken the medication abortion drug mifepristone off the market, but upheld aspects of the ruling that could cut back access to the pills.

The ruling from a conservative three-judge panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals will not affect the current availability of mifepristone, as the Supreme Court has already said that the drug and regulations that make it accessible will remain in place for the time being.

Continued :https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/politics/abortion-pill-mifepristone-5th-circuit/index.html

Abortion pill maker sues FDA to preserve access

The lawsuit from GenBioPro, which makes the generic version of the drug, comes as SCOTUS action looms.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN
04/19/2023

The company that makes the generic version of a common abortion pill sued the FDA on Wednesday, hoping to bar the agency from rolling back access to the drug if the Supreme Court allows sweeping restrictions to take effect this week.

The challenge filed in federal court in Maryland, where the agency is headquartered, argues that if the FDA implements a court order suspending approval of the drug, mifepristone, it would be “depriving GenBioPro of its constitutional and statutory rights to market mifepristone without affording GenBioPro due process of law.”

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/19/abortion-pill-maker-sues-fda-to-preserve-access-00092810

19.04.2023

News

abortion pills

Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

FDA

Food and Drug Administration

US Supreme Court upholds temporary access to abortion pill

Lower courts had issued restrictions on access to the abortion pill, used in about half of all US abortions.

19 Apr 2023

The United States Supreme Court has extended a temporary ruling that allows access to the abortion pill mifepristone, as anti-abortion rights groups seek to roll back approval for the medication, which is used in about half of all of the country’s abortions.

Wednesday’s decision by US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito puts the issue on hold for two additional days, until Friday at 11:59pm US Eastern time (03:59 GMT Saturday).

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/19/us-supreme-court-upholds-temporary-restrictions-on-abortion-pill

19.04.2023

Billboards advise on how to get abortion pills in US states where procedure is banned

Mobile billboards on how to get access to pills by mail are being driven through college campuses in 14 states

Ed Pilkington in New York
Fri 3 Mar 2023

Women living under abortion bans in the US are being offered advice on how to get access to abortion pills by mail, through a system of mobile billboards which are being driven through college campuses in 14 states carrying the prohibition.

The billboards are the creation of Mayday.Health, a non-profit set up in the wake of the US supreme court’s ruling last June that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. The posters carry QR codes that link to online information providing a step-by-step guide on how to obtain the abortion pill even in states which have banned it.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/03/abortion-pill-billboards-us-states-bans

03.03.2023