Supreme Court Preserves Abortion Pill Access by Mail for Now

A box of mifepristone pills outside the US Supreme Court in Washington.

Photographer: Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg

A divided US Supreme Court let a widely used abortion pill continue to be dispensed by mail, putting on hold a federal appeals court decision that had briefly required patients to make an in-person visit to a provider.

In a one-paragraph order that gave no explanation, the justices granted requests from the drug’s manufacturers to keep it fully available while a legal fight goes forward. Louisiana is seeking to upend the Food and Drug Administration’s decision during Joe Biden’s presidency to permit remote prescriptions for mifepristone, a drug the FDA first approved in 2000.