The legal back-and-forth over abortion access just took another turn and this time, it’s coming straight from the top.
On Monday, Samuel Alito stepped in and hit pause on a lower court ruling that would’ve blocked a key rule from the Food and Drug Administration. That rule allows the abortion pill mifepristone to be prescribed online and shipped through the mail, something that’s become a major access point for folks across the country.
Alito’s move? A temporary save for now… He granted relief to Danco Laboratories which is the company behind the brand-name version and GenBioPro, which makes the generic. Basically, he’s giving the Supreme Court of the United States more time to figure out what comes next.
Now, according to CBS News, this pause will last until 5 p.m. on May 11, so yeah, the clock is ticking.
The drugmakers aren’t just asking for a quick fix, they want the Court to fully step in and settle the issue for real. Meanwhile, Alito told Louisiana officials they’ve got until Thursday to respond to these emergency appeals.
Now, if this all feels familiar, that’s because it is. This is the second time mifepristone has landed in front of the Supreme Court recently. Ever since overturning of Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion groups have been pushing hard to limit access to the pill. Their argument? That the FDA didn’t do enough homework on safety when it first approved the drug back in 2000 and that loosening restrictions over time only made things worse.
But not every challenge has stuck. Just last year, in 2024, the Supreme Court shut down a case brought by anti-abortion doctors and medical groups. The ruling was unanimous, and the message was clear: those plaintiffs didn’t even have the legal standing to sue the FDA in the first place.
A lot of this legal drama traces back to changes the FDA made starting in 2016. Those updates made mifepristone more accessible, letting it be used later in pregnancy, allowing more healthcare providers to prescribe it, and eventually dropping the requirement that patients pick it up in person.
That last part became especially important during COVID-19, when the FDA temporarily lifted the in-person rule. After studying the results, the agency found that the drug “may be safely used without in-person dispensing.” By 2023, they made it official: telehealth prescriptions and mail delivery were here to stay.
But Louisiana wasn’t feeling that. After the Supreme Court preserved access to the drug, the state filed a lawsuit challenging the FDA’s decision to allow mail delivery. A federal judge in Louisiana paused that case back in April, which, for now, keeps the easier access rules in place while the FDA continues reviewing safety data.
So yeah, we’re in another holding pattern. Access to mifepristone isn’t changing today, but the bigger fight is far from over. All eyes are on what the Court does next, because whatever decision comes down could shape how millions of people access reproductive care moving forward.