Mifepristone is one of two medications that can be used to terminate pregnancy and treat miscarriages before 10 weeks. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The US Supreme Court issued one temporary stay to an appeals court ruling Friday that blocked remote access to an abortion drug and restored access until at least May 11.
The administrative stay issued by Justice Samuel Alito is paused Friday’s decision from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. That ruling blocked a 2023 rule issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that allowed mifepristone, one of two drugs used to terminate pregnancies before 10 weeks and to treat miscarriages, to be prescribed without an in-person visit to a health care provider and also to ship it to recipients in states with abortion bans.
“The administrative stay is temporary and I am confident that life and justice will prevail in the end,” Louisiana’s Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement.
Thirteen states have near-total bans on abortion, including Louisiana. Murrill sued the FDA in October, saying the rule undermined state law and caused financial harm because the state paid $92,000 in Medicaid bills for two women who needed emergency care in 2025 due to complications related to mifepristone.
In the years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision allowing states to regulate abortion access, telemedicine prescriptions of abortion medications have become increasingly popular, with more than 27% of all abortions performed this way in 2025, according to data from the Society of Family Planning.
“While this is a positive short-term development, no one can be calm when our ability to obtain this safe, effective drug to treat abortion and miscarriage still hangs in the balance,” Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney for the Reproductive Freedom Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “The Supreme Court must end this baseless attack on our reproductive freedom once and for all.”
The case could follow a pattern similar to that in 2023, after U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Texas issued a ruling that would have revoked access to the abortion drug mifepristone altogether.
The U.S. Supreme Court intervened shortly after that ruling and kept mifepristone available while the case was heard by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ultimately ruled that further restrictions were warranted but did not withdraw the drug’s approval. The Supreme Court officially took up the case a few months later and ruled unanimously in June 2024 that the plaintiffs suing the FDA lacked standing, leaving access to mifepristone intact.
According to Alito’s order, attorneys’ responses in the latest case are expected to be filed with the Supreme Court by Thursday.
Stateline reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris can be reached at kmoseley@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by State borderwhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes West Virginia Watch, and is a 501c(3) public charity supported by grants and a coalition of donors.
