The Supreme Court on Friday hit pause on a lower court’s ruling that suspended approval of mifepristone, one of the pills used in nearly half of all abortions in the U.S.
Justice Samuel Alito granted the government’s request for an emergency stay and indicated the full court will make a decision by Wednesday to give justices a little more time to consider the issues at hand.
The fact that Alito granted the temporary pause isn’t indicative of how he or the rest of the court will vote on whether to put the case on hold during the appeals process.
If the stay is lifted next week, both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Danco Laboratories, which makes mifepristone (brand name Mifeprex), warned of “regulatory chaos” that could have significant consequences for the entire pharmaceutical industry.
So what is the status quo? The two-drug regimen of mifepristone, followed by misoprostol, is currently approved by the FDA for use up to 10 weeks gestation. It can be dispensed after a telemedicine appointment, and doesn’t require an in-person visit to a provider.
But in this post-Roe world, abortion in general – and medication abortion specifically — are getting harder and harder to access.
Medication abortion accounts for more than half of all abortions in the country, and mifepristone has been used by more than 5.5 million people since it was first approved.
But many states with strict abortion bans also limit the availability of mifepristone, either through restrictions on who can prescribe and dispense the pill or outright bans of the pill.
Abortion is banned outright in 13 states. According to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks state restrictions, 15 states require that medication abortion be provided by a physician.
Six states require the patient to have an in-person visit with a physician, and one state — Indiana — requires mifepristone to be taken in the presence of a physician.
