WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on May 14 ensured that full access to the widely used abortion drug mifepristone will remain as the battle over mail-order prescriptions continues.
Without the court’s intervention, access to mifepristone would have been significantly and indefinitely curtailed for the first time since it was first approved in 2000.
At the request of drugmakers, the court paused a ruling that the drug must be prescribed and dispensed in person by a doctor. That decision − made over the objections of conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito − keeps the Food and Drug Administration's rules for mifepristone in place as Louisiana challenges expanded access to the drug through telemedicine.
In an unprecedented move, the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 1 ordered the agency to change its rules for an approved medication in response to Louisiana's lawsuit.
That thrust the politically radioactive issue of abortion back into the spotlight in the middle of an election year, something the Trump administration had hoped to avoid. The Justice Department did not weigh in on how it thought the Supreme Court should rule, even though the case is about federal regulations.
