Alito temporarily restores FDA rule allowing abortion pill to be sent by mail

Washington — Justice Samuel Alito on Monday temporarily halted an appellate court order that blocked a Food and Drug Administration rule allowing the abortion pill mifepristone to be prescribed online and dispensed through the mail. Alito granted temporary relief to the maker of mifepristone, Danco Laboratories, and the manufacturer of a generic version of the drug, GenBioPro. His administrative stay will remain in place until 5 p.m. on May 11. The move gives the Supreme Court more time to consider the drug companies' requests to set aside the appellate court's order while litigation proceeds. Danco and GenBioPro also asked the high court to take up the case and decide the legal merits. Alito set a Thursday deadline for Louisiana officials to respond to the drugmakers' emergency appeals. The appeals put the issue of mifepristone's availability before the Supreme Court for a second time. Anti-abortion rights groups have sought to restrict access to the widely used abortion pill since the high court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, claiming that the FDA failed to adequately consider the drug's safety and effectiveness when it first approved mifepristone in 2000 and relaxed the rules for its use over the past decade. In 2024, the high court unanimously rejected a challenge from a group of anti-abortion rights doctors and medical groups that targeted mifepristone's availability, ruling that the plaintiffs did not have the legal right to sue the FDA. …