Overview
- Drugmaker Danco filed an emergency application asking the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a federal appeals court order that blocks nationwide postal delivery of mifepristone.
- The conservative appeals panel granted Louisiana’s bid to challenge the FDA’s 2023 policy that removed an in‑person pickup rule for the drug, reversing a recent district court pause in the case.
- The district judge had put the lawsuit on hold and told the FDA to report back in six months on its ongoing safety review, but the new appeals ruling reinstates a mail‑delivery ban during the appeal.
- Reproductive‑rights groups say cutting off mail delivery will curb access to medication abortion provided by telemedicine and will hit people in rural areas, those facing partner violence, and patients with disabilities the hardest.
- Louisiana’s attorney general and the conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom hailed the ruling as a nationwide suspension during the appeal, while the fight continues in a post‑Dobbs landscape where many states have banned or tightly restricted abortion.