San Francisco Frontiers - Drugmaker asks US Supreme Court to restore abortion pill access

Mifepristone, which prevents pregnancy progression, is used alongside misoprostol, which empties the uterus, in the majority of abortions in the United States. It is approved for use up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy.

Danco Laboratories, which manufactures mifepristone and is one of two companies distributing the drug in the United States, asked the top court to stay a Friday decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that temporarily blocked abortion providers from prescribing and shipping the drug nationwide.

The lower court ordered that women seeking abortions anywhere in the United States had to obtain mifepristone at a clinic, rather than by mail order or through a pharmacy.

That decision, "injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions," the drugmaker wrote in its filing with the Supreme Court.

"The resulting chaos for patients, providers, pharmacies, and the drug-regulatory system is a quintessential irreparable harm that underscores the need for emergency relief from this Court."

Mifepristone has been approved since 2000 and is also routinely used for managing early miscarriages.

Anti-abortion activists, however, have called the drug's safety into question, with some citing a study conducted by a conservative think tank that never underwent formal peer review.

In 2024, the Supreme Court rejected a bid to restrict the drug, ruling that anti-abortion groups and doctors calling for greater limits lacked legal standing to bring the case.

Since a 2022 Supreme Court decision that struck down a nationwide right to abortion, some 20 states have banned or restricted it.

Polls show a majority of Americans support legal access to abortion even as activists push to limit or ban it outright.

M.Powell--SFF