By Lawrence Hurley and Aria Bendix – NBC News
The Supreme Court on Monday provisionally blocked a lower court ruling that would have limited the nationwide availability of the abortion pill mifepristone.
In two brief orders, Judge Samuel Alito, one of the court’s conservatives, assured that the decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit would remain suspended until at least May 11.
This gives the high court time to consider next steps in the case while it evaluates separate emergency applications filed by drugmakers Danco and GenBioPro.
The nationwide availability of mifepristone was threatened Friday when the appeals court granted Louisiana’s request to overturn Biden Administration rules that allowed the drug to be administered without an in-person consultation, meaning it can theoretically be mailed anywhere in the country, even to states with strict abortion bans.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the pro-choice group Planned Parenthood Action Fund, welcomed the decision.
“Although access to mifepristone is once again the same as it was on Friday morning, the uproar and chaos that patients and providers are experiencing has already had real consequences on the lives and futures of real people,” he added in a statement.
Anti-abortion groups have been pushing for years to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement, arguing that taking mifepristone at home can be dangerous, even though studies have shown it to be safe and effective.
Danco makes Mifeprex, the brand-name version of mifepristone, while GenBioPro makes a generic version.
Alito ordered Louisiana to file its response to the company’s request by the end of the day Thursday.
In 2024, the Supreme Court rejected an earlier attempt to revoke Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals for mifepristone. The high court then stated that those who challenged the approvals did not have procedural standing.
The new case focuses more specifically on the Biden Administration’s decision last year to make permanent COVID-19-era rules that made it easier to obtain the drug during the pandemic.
That move followed the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark abortion rights case, giving conservative states the green light to greatly restrict, if not ban, abortion.
Medication abortion is more difficult for states to regulate than surgical procedures, especially if the pills are available through the mail.
The drug makers claim that, as in the previous case, Louisiana does not have standing to bring the lawsuits.
In their lawsuit against the FDA, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group that opposes abortion, argued that the data did not support eliminating the in-person dispensing requirement.
In January, the FDA requested that the case be stayed until the agency finished conducting its own safety review of mifepristone. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. commissioned the review last year in response to a report that said it found a higher rate of serious complications from mifepristone than reported by the FDA.
But researchers who study reproductive health said the report was pseudoscience and exaggerated the risks of the drug. The report was published online by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank. It was not peer reviewed or published in a medical journal.
A Louisiana district court judge granted the FDA’s request to stay the case last month, before the appeals court intervened.
