The measure remains in place until the Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, decides whether or not to take up the case on its merits. The nine judges had until Thursday to rule on the legal challenge filed by the laboratories Danco and GenBioPro, manufacturers of mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions that accounted for more than two-thirds of all abortions in the United States in 2023. At least two conservative judges, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, have expressed their disagreement with the decision made.
“We are not celebrating yet”
“Allowing nationwide continuation of telemedicine prescriptions, postal delivery, and pharmacy dispensing of mifepristone brings a much-awaited relief after troubled weeks. But we’re not fully celebrating yet,” emphasized Kelly Baden, vice president of the Guttmacher Institute, a leading organization on the subject. In its emergency request to the Supreme Court, Danco raised concerns about the “immediate confusion” and “harsh upheaval for manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, pharmacies, and patients across the country” caused by a block on telemedicine prescriptions and postal delivery, especially for “highly sensitive medical decisions.”
Requiring women to have an in-person medical appointment would further restrict access to abortion in a country where, since 2022 and the landmark Supreme Court ruling, the right to abortion is no longer federally guaranteed and is now in the hands of each state. About twenty states have since either banned, with very few exceptions, or restricted access to abortion to an extreme degree, whether through medication or surgical means. There was still a loophole: obtaining the abortion pill through a telemedicine prescription in a state with protective abortion laws and having it delivered by mail. In the United States, more than a quarter of those who had a medically supervised abortion in 2025 did so through a telemedicine prescription, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
“No peace of mind”
“Today’s decision buys us time but does not bring us peace of mind,” summed up Nancy Northup, head of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Access to mifepristone remains under significant threat” through this legal process and also through the Trump administration, which initiated a “politically motivated review” of this pill, aimed at making it harder to obtain, she continued. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun a safety review of mifepristone under pressure from the anti-abortion camp since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
