{"id":651,"date":"2026-05-09T23:23:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T23:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/?p=651"},"modified":"2026-05-09T23:23:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T23:23:03","slug":"supreme-court-restores-access-to-abortion-pill-mifepristone-through-telehealth-mail-and-pharmacies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/?p=651","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court restores access to abortion pill mifepristone through telehealth, mail and pharmacies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mifepristone tablets sit on a table at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ames, Iowa, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo\/Charlie Neibergall, File)<\/small><\/p>\n

2026-05-04T14:54:00Z<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Supreme Court<\/a><\/span> on Monday restored broad access to the abortion pill mifepristone, blocking a lower-court ruling that had threatened to upend one of the main ways abortions are provided across the nation.<\/p>\n

The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito temporarily allows women seeking abortions to obtain the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor.<\/p>\n

Those practices had been permitted for several years until a federal appeals court imposed new restrictions<\/a><\/span> last week.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The latest order will remain in effect for another week while both sides respond and the high court considers the issue more fully.<\/p>\n

Most abortions use pills rather than procedures<\/h2>\n

The majority of abortions in the U.S. are obtained through medications. Some Democratic-led states have laws that seek to give legal protection to those who prescribe the drugs via telehealth to patients in states with bans.<\/p>\n

Those prescriptions have blunted the impact of abortion bans that most Republican-led states have sought to enforce since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. One recent report<\/a><\/span> suggested that in the 13 states where abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy, more women obtained abortions with pills prescribed by telehealth last year than by traveling to other states.<\/p>\n

Louisiana sued to roll back the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s rules on how mifepristone can be prescribed, asserting that the policy undermines the ban there. The case also questioned the safety of the drug, which was approved 25 years ago and has repeatedly been deemed safe and effective by FDA scientists.<\/p>\n

That lawsuit is the furthest along of several efforts by abortion opponents<\/a><\/span> to curtail access to mifepristone.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n