Supreme Court preserves access to widely used abortion pill, while lawsuit plays out
Source: AP
Updated 5:50 PM EDT, May 14, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court on Thursday preserved womens access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion, rejecting lower-court restrictions while a lawsuit continues.
The courts order allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the drug, mifepristone, at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. Access is likely to remain uninterrupted at least until into next year as the case plays out, including a potential appeal to the high court.
The justices granted emergency requests from makers of mifepristone, who are appealing a federal appeals court ruling that would require women to see a doctor in person and halt delivery of mifepristone through the mail. The federal Food and Drug Administration, which first approved mifepristone for use in abortion in 2000, stopped requiring in-person visits five years ago.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, with Thomas writing that the two companies, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, are not entitled to the courts action to spare them lost profits from their criminal enterprise.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-mifepristone-abortion-louisiana-637acaa2f233de067e3756bea50bd723
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25a1207_21p3.pdf
Just breaking.
Article updated.
Previous article -
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday preserved women's access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion, rejecting lower-court restrictions while a lawsuit continues.
The court's order allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the drug, mifepristone, at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. Access is likely to remain uninterrupted at least until into next year as the case plays out, including a potential appeal to the high court.
The justices granted emergency requests from makers of mifepristone, who are appealing a federal appeals court ruling that would require women to see a doctor in person and halt delivery of mifepristone through the mail. The federal Food and Drug Administration, which first approved mifepristone for use in abortion in 2000, stopped requiring in-person visits five years ago.
Anti-abortion groups, frustrated with President Donald Trump's administration, are pushing the FDA to move faster with a review that they hope will result in restrictions on mifepristone, including blocking its prescribing via telehealth platforms. The Republican administration says the work takes time.
Original article -
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday preserved women's access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion, rejecting lower-court restrictions while a lawsuit continues.
The court's order allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the drug, mifepristone, at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. Access is likely to remain uninterrupted at least until into next year as the case plays out, including a potential appeal to the high court.
The justices granted emergency requests from makers of mifepristone, who are appealing a federal appeals court ruling that would require women to see a doctor in person and halt delivery of mifepristone through the mail. The federal Food and Drug Administration, which first approved mifepristone for use in abortion in 2000, stopped requiring in-person visits five years ago.
mahatmakanejeeves
(70,613 posts)Breaking, indeed.
Reposted by I Dont Think About Popehats Financial Situation
https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social
Mark Joseph Stern
@mjsdc.bsky.social
· 12m
BREAKING
@mjsdc.bsky.social
BREAKING: The Supreme Court HALTS the 5th Circuit's decision blocking telemedicine mifepristone nationwide. Alito and Thomas dissent. Thomas suggests that mailing abortion pills violates the Comstock Act.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28124629-25a1207-order/
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 25A1207
DANCO LABORATORIES, LLC v. LOUISIANA, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
No. 25A1208
GENBIOPRO, INC. v. LOUISIANA, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
[May 14, 2026]
The applications for stay presented to JUSTICE ALITO and
by him referred to the Court are granted. The May 1, 2026
order of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit, case No. 2630203, is stayed pending disposition of
the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the
Fifth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certi-
orari, if such a writ is timely sought. Should certiorari be
denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the
event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon
the sending down of the judgment of this Court.
JUSTICE THOMAS, dissenting.
Applicants are manufacturers and distributors of mife-
pristone, a drug that is primarily designed to cause abor-
tion. They complain that the Fifth Circuits order would
reduce profits they derive from selling mifepristone. I
would deny their applications because they have not satis-
fied their burden for securing interim relief.
I write separately to note that, as Louisiana argued be-
low, it is a criminal offense to ship mifepristone for use in
abortions. The Comstock Act bans using the mails to ship
ALT
5:28 PM · May 14, 2026
BREAKING: The Supreme Court HALTS the 5th Circuit's decision blocking telemedicine mifepristone nationwide. Alito and Thomas dissent. Thomas suggests that mailing abortion pills violates the Comstock Act. www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T21:28:28.038Z
not fooled
(6,752 posts)then, the hammer.
LetMyPeopleVote
(181,838 posts)The fact that these two assholes are upset makes me smile
Conservative Supreme Court justices wrote a scathing dissent to the 7-2 decision to allow women to continue accessing the abortion pill Mifepristone via mail and telehealth.
— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-05-14T22:35:44.666Z
https://www.rawstory.com/mifepristone-scotus-dissent/?utm_source=superhead
"What is at stake is the perpetration of a scheme to undermine our decision in Dobbs v. Jackson," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his dissent, referring to the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and pulled back abortion access.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court continued a pause on an appeals court decision that restricted access to Mifepristone via telehealth and mail. The decision extended a stay that the bench handed down earlier in the month, but it is not the final decision, as it will go back to the New Orleans-based appeals court and could return to the Supreme Court docket, reported The Hill.
"Manufacturers of the drug...are obviously aware of what is going on yet nevertheless supply the drug and reap profits from its felonious use in Louisiana," Alito went on.
Fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas also wrote a dissenting opinion. He blasted the drug manufacturers, who "are not entitled to a stay of an adverse court order based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise."
Alito added that "more abortions now occur each month in Louisiana than they did before Dobbs" as a result of out-of-state doctors and organizations mailing abortion pills to Louisiana women's doors
BumRushDaShow
(172,042 posts)would experience?
They need to just ignore it (and certainly don't buy it), like the average person ignores the thousands and thousands of other drugs that are out there.
LetMyPeopleVote
(181,838 posts)A federal appeals court ruling against the Food and Drug Administration would have restricted access by mail to mifepristone.
Link to tweet
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/us/politics/supreme-court-abortion-pill.html?unlocked_article_code=1.iVA.WwIl.mVqV7bLGuxhB&smid=nytcore-ios-share
Two manufacturers of mifepristone had asked the Supreme Court to intervene after the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit restricted access to the medication nationwide.
The Supreme Courts brief order means that the Fifth Circuits decision will remain blocked, perhaps for months, while litigation continues in the lower courts. The issue could eventually return to the high court.
The majority did not explain the reasons for its ruling, as is often the case when it issues emergency orders. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., the two most conservative justices, dissented, with Justice Alito calling the majoritys order remarkable and complaining that it was unreasoned.....
Justice Alito, in his dissent, agreed with the state that its ban had been thwarted by certain medical providers, private organizations and states that abhor laws like Louisianas and seek to undermine their enforcement. He characterized the shipping of abortion medication into states with strict bans as the perpetration of a scheme to undercut the Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which he noted restored the right of each state to decide how to regulate abortions within its borders.
The fact that Alito and Thomas are upset makes me smile