Supreme Court temporarily extends women's access to a widely used
abortion pill
[May 12, 2026]
By MARK SHERMAN, GEOFF MULVIHILL and MATTHEW PERRONE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving women’s access to a
widely used abortion pill untouched until at least Thursday, while the
justices consider whether to allow restrictions on the drug,
mifepristone, to take effect.
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. It prevents restrictions on mifepristone
imposed by a federal appeals court from taking effect for the time
being.
The court is dealing with its latest abortion controversy four years
after its conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed more
than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.
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 the ban there, 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.
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 current dispute is similar to one that reached the court three years
ago.
Lower courts then also sought to restrict access to mifepristone, in a
case brought by physicians who oppose abortion. They filed suit in the
months after the court overturned Roe.
The Supreme Court blocked the 5th Circuit ruling from taking effect over
the dissenting votes of Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas. Then, in
2024, the high court unanimously dismissed the doctors’ suit, reasoning
they did not have the legal right, or standing, to sue.
In the current dispute, mainstream medical groups, the pharmaceutical
industry and Democratic members of Congress have weighed in cautioning
the court against limiting access to the drug. Pharmaceutical companies
said a ruling for abortion opponents would upend the drug approval
process.
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Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama
Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., March 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Allen
G. Breed, File)
 The FDA has eased a number of
restrictions initially placed on the drug, including who can
prescribe it, how it is dispensed and what kinds of safety
complications must be reported.
Despite those determinations, abortion opponents have been
challenging the safety of mifepristone for more than 25 years. They
have filed a series of petitions and lawsuits against the agency,
generally alleging that it violated federal law by overlooking
safety issues with the pill.
President Donald Trump’s administration has been unusually quiet at
the Supreme Court. It declined to file a written brief recommending
what the court should do, even though federal regulations are at
issue.
The case puts Trump’s Republican administration in a difficult
place. Trump has relied on the political support of anti-abortion
groups but has also seen ballot question and poll results that show
Americans generally support abortion rights.
Both sides took the silence as an implicit endorsement of the
appellate ruling. Alito is both the justice in charge of handling
emergency appeals from Louisiana and the author of the 2022 decision
that declared abortion is not a constitutional right and returned
the issue to the states.
___
Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, N.J.
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