Supreme Court extends temporary order letting mifepristone be accessed remotely
The Supreme Court has extended its order temporarily allowing for the abortion drug mifepristone to be accessed through telehealth visits and by mail until Thursday.
Justice Samuel Alito, who is in charge of fielding emergency appeals from Louisiana and the author of the 2022 decision that reverted abortion law back to the states, made the decision on Monday.
Justices previously restored remote access to mifepristone after a federal appeals court granted Louisiana’s request last month to bring back a requirement that it be dispensed in person.
The Food and Drug Administration first ended that requirement in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It then lifted it again, permanently, months after the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Louisiana, which has an abortion ban, challenged the policy in court. State officials argued that the agency’s justifications for dispensing mifepristone remotely were based on flawed or nonexistent data. Studies have found, though, that the pill is effective and safe to use.
Data from the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that supports abortion rights, shows that medication abortion accounts for roughly two out of every three abortions nationwide.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
