The Supreme Court has allowed telemedicine access to a widely used abortion bill to continue through at least Thursday so the justices have more time to weigh a national ban on accessing the pills through the mail, the Associated Press reports.
Justice Samuel Alito on Monday signed a three-day extension of an earlier court order allowing the existing rules for prescribing the drug mifepristone online or through the mail to remain in place during deliberations.
The high court began considering the case after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late last month blocked a 2023 Federal and Drug Administration regulation that allowed patients to access mifepristone through the mail — the most common way for people in states such as Texas that have outlawed abortion care to access the procedure.
Mifepristone, when used in conjunction with the drug misoprostol, is the most common method in the U.S. for terminating pregnancies. Roughly 1 in 4 abortions in this country are provided via telemedicine, according to the Society of Family Planning.
The Supreme Court blocked an earlier 5th Circuit ruling that blocked patients from accessing abortion drugs by mail. Justices unanimously dismissed the suit, brought by doctors, arguing they didn’t have the legal right to bring the suit.
Mainstream medical groups, abortion-rights advocates and the pharmaceutical industry have warned the Supreme Court that that health concerns abortion foes have raised about the drug are based on junk science. They also caution that overriding the FDA’s approval for the drug to be accessed by telemedicine would sew chaos for the nation’s drug-approval framework.
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The order blocks the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from last week that mifepristone may only be obtained in direct consultation with a medical professional.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that mifepristone must be obtained in person.