Fight over online access to abortion pill reaches Supreme Court in emergency appeal
Mifepristone tablets sit on a table at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ames
By John Fritze, CNN
(CNN) — The makers of the abortion pill mifepristone filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court on Saturday urging the justices to pause a lower-court ruling that temporarily blocked Americans from accessing the drug through the mail.
The fast-track case, filed with conservative Justice Samuel Alito, puts the drug and the issue of abortion back on the high court’s docket less than two years after the justices rejected a similar challenge — a decision that allowed the drug to remain widely available.
The rush appeal comes a day after the conservative 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a nationwide requirement that the medication be obtained in person, undermining access to the method of abortion that has grown more widespread since the court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent that established a constitutional right to abortion.
The lower-court ruling, Danco Laboratories told the Supreme Court in its appeal Saturday, “injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions.”
“What happens when patients arrive for scheduled appointments this weekend and beyond, or walk into pharmacies in New York, Minnesota, Washington, and many other states today to obtain Mifeprex that was prescribed by a provider yesterday?” the company’s attorneys wrote. “What should a patient do if she cannot obtain an in-person appointment immediately?”
Danco urged the Supreme Court to issue an “administrative” stay that would immediately pause the 5th Circuit’s decision. It also urged the Supreme Court to case the case up on the merits.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, women have been able to obtain mifepristone – one of the two drugs in the medication abortion regimen – through telehealth appointments. President Joe Biden’s administration finalized rules that ended the requirement that the pills be obtained through an in-person doctor’s visit in 2023, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe.
As conservative states have responded to the Supreme Court’s decision by banning or severely limiting access to clinic abortions, medication abortions have become more common. Medication abortions accounted for more than 60% of abortions in the US in 2023, according to Guttmacher Institute research.
Louisiana sued last year alleging that the Biden-era regulation undermined its own abortion ban. A federal district court in April declined to restrict access to the drug until the FDA completed a safety review of the drug.
A CNN analysis of mifepristone data shows that the drug is overwhelmingly safe and has fewer reported side effects than Viagra or penicillin.
CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
