Supreme Court pauses ruling blocking delivery of abortion pills by mail
The United States Supreme Court has paused a lower court ruling halting the distribution of abortion pills by mail as the issue remains a source of contention in American politics.
In an order released Monday, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito stayed an opinion issued by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals siding with the state of Louisiana in its challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 loosening of requirements to obtain the abortion pill, also known as mifepristone. Alito’s order remains in effect until Monday, May 11, at 5 p.m. ET.
Alito’s order comes after mifepristone manufacturer Danco Laboratories, a plaintiff in Louisiana’s lawsuit, filed an application to the U.S. Supreme Court over the weekend asking the justices to issue a stay on the appellate court’s Friday decision.
The 5th Circuit’s ruling blocked changes to the requirements for distributing the abortion pill under the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) while litigation continues.
The changes at issue involve removing the requirement that women seeking the abortion pill must visit a doctor in person. Friday’s appellate decision followed a lower court ruling that Louisiana was likely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the REMS modification as violating the Administrative Procedure Act but declined to issue a stay.
The appellate court agreed with the district court’s finding that the FDA “essentially acknowledged APA procedural deficits with respect to mifepristone” by “stating that [its] intention to review the mifepristone regulatory framework was precipitated by lack of adequate consideration underlying the prior REMS approvals.”
The 5th Circuit also determined that Louisiana had “suffered an injury traceable to the defendant which the court’s judgment would likely redress” because the 2023 REMS modification allowed abortion drugs to be distributed by mail in the state despite a state law banning abortion pills.
Another “injury,” the court said, was forcing the state to “spend Medicaid funds on emergency care for women harmed by mifepristone.”
Danco Laboratories disagreed, arguing in its filing that Louisiana lacked standing because “Nothing in FDA’s 2023 REMS requires Louisiana to ‘prescribe or use mifepristone’ or to ‘do anything or to refrain from doing anything.’” Therefore, Danco argued, Louisiana did not experience a “judicially cognizable injury.”
The Trump administration has faced criticism from pro-life advocacy groups in recent months for working to dismiss the Louisiana lawsuit amid an ongoing FDA safety review of the abortion pill. Pro-life activists have also alleged that the FDA is slow-walking the investigation because they believe it would be a political liability during the 2026 midterm elections, citing Bloomberg reporting. The Trump administration denies the claim.
A 2025 report by the conservative public policy think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center stated that 10.93% of women experienced adverse effects from mifepristone between 2017 and 2023 — significantly higher than the 0.5% rate listed on the drug’s label. The report analyzed data from an all-payer insurance claims database covering 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions during that period.
The report found the most common adverse events included emergency room visits (4.73%), hemorrhages (3.31%), surgical abortions (2.84%), infection (1.34%), hospitalization (0.66%), ectopic pregnancies (0.35%), transfusions (0.15%) and sepsis (0.10%).
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
