Supreme Court extends access to mifepristone abortion pill for now
FILE - In this photo illustration, packages of Mifepristone tablets are displayed at a family planning clinic. ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The U.S. Supreme Court is extending access to a mifepristone, a widely used abortion pill, until at least Thursday.
The justices are still deciding on whether to put tighter restrictions on the pill.
What they're saying:
Justice Samuel Alito’s order Monday allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor.
Dig deeper:
The case before the court stems from a lawsuit Louisiana filed to roll back the Food and Drug Administration’s rules on how mifepristone can be prescribed.
The state claims the policy undermines its abortion ban, and it questions the safety of the drug, which was first approved in 2000 and has repeatedly been deemed safe and effective by FDA scientists.
Lower courts concluded that Louisiana is likely to prevail, and a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mail access and telehealth visits should be suspended while the case plays out.
Supreme Court restores access to abortion pill mifepristone
The Supreme Court restored broad access Monday to the abortion pill mifepristone. George Washington University's Sonia Suter joins LiveNOW's Alexandra Goldberg to discuss.
What is mifepristone?
The drug is most often used for abortion in combination with another drug, misoprostol.
Medication abortions accounted for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. in 2023, the last year for which statistics are available.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from The Associated Press and previous reporting by FOX Local. This story was reported from San Jose.