Is the Supreme Court's Abortion Pill Ruling Actually a Feint?

A newsletter announces weekly coverage of under-the-radar legal developments involving Trump and the law. The Supreme Court temporarily halted a crisis over mifepristone, a drug used in most abortions nationwide, after a Louisiana challenge to FDA telehealth access. Louisiana argued the FDA inadequately reviewed safety risks when it removed the in-person dispensing requirement, and the Fifth Circuit blocked telehealth access nationwide while litigation continued. The Supreme Court stayed that block at the request of mifepristone manufacturers, Danco and GenBioPro. The threat remains because anti-abortion efforts continue through courts and the Trump administration to impose national limits voters would not endorse. Multiple lower-court cases target mifepristone, including challenges by several state attorneys general to FDA regulation and lawsuits invoking the Comstock Act.

"Last week the Supreme Court temporarily ended the latest crisis around mifepristone, a drug used in most abortions nationwide, but one thing remains clear: Some conservative judges are tempted to reenter the fray on reproductive rights, despite Justice Brett Kavanaugh's promise that in overturning Roe,the court was getting out of the abortion business."

"The case involved a challenge brought by Louisiana to a 2023 Food and Drug Administration decision allowing telehealth access to the drug. Louisiana contended that the FDA had inadequately reviewed safety risks in removing the in-person dispensing requirement, and the conservative 5 th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, blocking telehealth access nationwide as the litigation continued. At the request of mifepristone's manufacturers, Danco and GenBioPro, the Supreme Court agreed to stay the 5 th Circuit's order until it issues a final decision in the case."

"But don't be fooled into believing that the threat to mifepristone is over. The anti-abortion movement is still working through the courts and through the Trump administration to impose national limits on mifepristone that voters would never endorse. As importantly, the Louisiana case provides clear evidence that a campaign that presents itself as pro-woman is actually just pro-punishment."

"There are now several cases attacking mifepristone in the lower courts, some of them more ambitious than Louisiana's. The attorneys general of Texas, Florida, Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas are all challenging FDA regulation of mifepristone. Individual lawsuits brought by anti-abortion attorneys insist-as did Justice Clarence Thomas in dissent from Friday's stay of the 5 th Circuit ruling-that the Comstock Act, a 19 th-century obscenity law, makes"

Read at Slate Magazine