Updated on: May 2, 2026 / 7:50 PM EDT / CBS/AP
Danco Laboratories asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday to block a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that cut off mail-order access to the abortion pill mifepristone, seeking relief while appeals proceed. The request came a day after the New Orleans-based appeals court issued a unanimous decision requiring mifepristone be distributed only in person and at clinics, effectively overruling FDA regulations that had allowed prescriptions by mail.
In its filing, Danco said the appellate ruling “injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions.” The 5th Circuit said the current FDA regulation “creates an effective way for an out-of-state prescriber to place the drug in the hands of Louisianans in defiance of Louisiana law” and said every abortion facilitated by the FDA’s action undermines Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions.
The ruling was a major victory for abortion opponents who have sought to curb online prescribing and mailing of abortion pills, which have become a primary way to obtain medication abortions since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to enforce bans. A federal judge in Louisiana had earlier ruled that the FDA’s eased dispensing rules undermined the state’s abortion ban but did not immediately undo the regulations.
Historically, courts have given wide deference to the FDA’s safety determinations. The appeals court noted the FDA is conducting a new safety review at the direction of President Trump but said agency officials “could not say when that review might be complete and admitted it was still collecting data.”
Louisiana’s attorney general and a woman who says she was coerced into taking abortion pills asked courts to roll back FDA rules to a pre-pandemic regime when mifepristone could be prescribed and dispensed only after an in-person visit and by specially certified providers. Those initial restrictions were imposed because of rare risks such as excessive bleeding.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA relaxed those requirements after more than 20 years of monitoring and reviewing dozens of studies involving thousands of patients. The agency under President Joe Biden determined people could safely use the drug without direct, in-person supervision, allowing telemedicine prescribing and mailing of mifepristone.
Advocates for abortion access slammed the appeals court decision. American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Julia Kaye said the ruling “shamelessly packaged lies and propaganda as an excuse to restrict abortion” and warned that losing telemedicine options will mean losing access for many people, including those in rural areas, survivors of intimate partner violence, and people with disabilities.
Mifepristone, approved in 2000 and typically used with misoprostol to end early pregnancies, has been a focal point in legal battles over medication abortion. Reproductive Freedom for All called the 5th Circuit decision “one step closer to a national abortion ban,” and accused Louisiana of relying on debunked science. The group pledged to continue fighting as the case moves toward the Supreme Court.
The conservative-majority Supreme Court in 2024 had unanimously preserved access to mifepristone, but that decision avoided the substantive questions by finding the doctors who brought the challenge lacked legal standing. The current conflict centers on whether courts may override FDA determinations and on the extent to which states can limit access to medication abortion by restricting telemedicine and mailing of the drug.