WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an anti-abortion challenge to federal regulations that permit sending pills through the mail once a patient has consulted a doctor online.
The justices granted an emergency appeal from the makers of mifepristone and set aside an order from a U.S. appeals court in Louisiana that would have made it illegal to send or receive the medication by mail.
The vote was 7-2. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito dissented.
“The court’s unreasoned order granting stays in this case is remarkable,” Alito wrote. “What is at stake is the perpetration of a scheme to undermine our decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which restored the right of each State to decide how to regulate abortions within its borders.”
The decision is a setback for abortion opponents who insist the medication is not safe. The case will now return to the 5th Circuit for further review.
The Food and Drug Administration is conducting its own review of the abortion pills and their regulations for dispensing medication.
In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of mifepristone as safe and effective for ending an early pregnancy or treating a miscarriage. It is used in combination with a second drug misoprostol, which induces cramping.
Since 2016, the FDA has relaxed regulations on its use. They include a requirement that women obtain the pills directly from a doctor or a medical clinic. However, it was understood the medication would be taken later at home.
The agency temporarily suspended this rule in 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, then lifted it entirely in 2023.
Medication abortions now account for almost two-thirds of abortions in the United States, and telehealth is used in 27% of abortions nationwide. Last year, in response to abortion opponents, the Trump administration agreed to review the safety record of mifepristone.
But Louisiana Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill decided to sue in federal court without waiting for the FDA.
She argued the mailing of abortion medication, which was approved under the Biden administration, was undermining her state’s strict ban on abortions.
A federal judge in Louisiana said the state appeared to have a strong claim but he decided not to rule on it until the FDA completed its review.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals responded a few days later by ruling the FDA erred by relaxing its regulations to allow for dispensing the pills by mail. The three-judge panel then put its ruling into effect immediately on May 1.
Abortion law experts called out the decision as extreme and unusual.
“To our knowledge, no court has ever ordered the FDA to reimpose on a drug a safety rule the agency has thoroughly studied and deemed unnecessary,” said Melissa Goodman, executive director of UCLA’s Center for Reproductive Health, Law and Policy.
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