WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday extended its temporary pause on a lower court ruling that banned mail delivery of the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide.
Justice Samuel Alito issued an order that extends the block until Thursday, May 14, at 5 p.m. EDT.
The order continues to keep in place the Biden administration policy that allows distribution of mifepristone without an in-person visit.
The rule, which the Food and Drug Administration issued after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, has massively increased the use of the drug, hindering the effectiveness of pro-life laws and causing serious harm to women, according to data. Abortionists and abortion drug networks have mailed tens of thousands of pills into pro-life states under the policy.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had blocked the Biden rule in a major decision on May 1, siding with Louisiana, which is challenging the regulation on the grounds that it undermines the state’s pro-life laws.
Alito issued a previous interim order last week that temporarily blocked the Fifth Circuit decision. That order was set to expire today at 5 p.m. and came after emergency appeals by two manufacturers of mifepristone.
“Upon further consideration of the application of counsel for the applicant, the response, and the reply filed thereto, it is ordered that the stay issued on May 4, 2026, is hereby extended until 5:00 p.m. (EDT) on Thursday, May 14, 2026,” the new order states.
The provisional orders do not necessarily indicate how the Supreme Court may eventually rule in the case.
They came from Alito, a conservative who authored the court’s 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, because he oversees emergency matters arising from the Fifth Circuit.
Around two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. are currently estimated to be committed using pills. Nearly 250,000 so-called “telehealth abortions,” or abortions committed with pills prescribed remotely, occurred in 2024 – more than a quarter of all abortions that year – according to a report by the pro-abortion Society of Family Planning.
Louisiana is one of more than a dozen states that have banned nearly all abortions since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The state also outlawed abortion pills as controlled substances in 2024.
A three-judge panel of Fifth Circuit unanimously ruled that Louisiana is likely to succeed in its challenge, saying that the FDA policy “injures Louisiana by undermining its laws protecting unborn human life and also by causing it to spend Medicaid funds on emergency care for women harmed by mifepristone. Both injuries are irreparable.”
“Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban on medical [i.e., chemical] abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,’” the appeals court said. “Once lost, that sovereign prerogative of protecting unborn life cannot be regained by legal remedy.”
The judges added that the removal of the in-person dispensing requirement “likely lacked a basis in data and scientific literature.”
Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, pharmaceutical companies that make mifepristone, filed emergency appeals with the Supreme Court in response to the ruling.
In 2024, the high court rejected a previous lawsuit against the FDA’s abortion pill regulations by a group of pro-life doctors, on the ground that they didn’t have standing to sue.
However, Louisiana’s challenge uses a different legal approach focused on state sovereignty and Medicaid expenses.
Louisiana last week asked the Supreme Court to reject Danco and GenBioPro’s emergency appeals, saying that illegal abortions are “directly causing tens of thousands of dollars of harm to Louisiana in the form of investigatory costs and Medicaid costs from statistically certain emergency room visits.”
The state thus “had no choice but to file this suit,” according to the filing.
Louisiana is one of more than a dozen states that have banned nearly all abortions since the overturn of Roe. The state also outlawed abortion drugs as controlled substances in 2024.
The Trump administration has so far declined to reverse the Biden mail-order abortion policy, prompting criticism from pro-lifers. FDA chief Marty Makary has said that the agency is waiting until after it concludes a review of abortion pill data, but Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, have slammed the FDA’s lack of urgency and questioned if the review is even taking place.
The Trump FDA and Department of Justice have also opposed Louisiana’s lawsuit in court, as well as other state challenges to the Biden rule.
However, the administration, which has taken various other pro-life actions, has not filed a brief with the Supreme Court opposing the Fifth Circuit decision.