Supreme Court Asked to Restore Access to Abortion Pill by Mail

Source: New York Times

May 2, 2026 Updated 1:58 p.m. ET


A manufacturer of the abortion pill mifepristone asked the Supreme Court on Saturday to immediately restore full access to the medication, putting the contentious issue of abortion back before the justices in an election year. The request came after a lower court on Friday temporarily restricted abortion providers nationwide from prescribing the pills by telemedicine and sending them to patients by mail. That process is one of the main ways women seeking abortions have obtained the medication in recent years.

If the order on Friday by a federal appeals court is upheld, it could sow confusion and upend a major avenue for abortion access across the country -- not just in states with abortion bans. About one-fourth of abortions in the United States are now provided through telemedicine.

Louisiana officials had sued the Food and Drug Administration to restrict access to mifepristone, saying the availability of the medication by mail had allowed abortions to continue in the state despite its near-total ban on abortion.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Friday sided with Louisiana and essentially reimposed an F.D.A. requirement that health care providers prescribe mifepristone only after seeing patients in person. That rule was first lifted in 2021. The Fifth Circuit ordered that in-person dispensing of mifepristone be reinstated until the Louisiana lawsuit made its way through the courts.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/02/us/politics/supreme-court-mail-abortion-pill.html