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Medication Abortion Is Back Before the Supreme Court, and the Stakes Are National by Joyce Vance
The mifepristone case that has landed on the Supreme Court’s shadow docket is the new face of conservative efforts to impose a nationwide ban on abortion.
snip
Mifepristone is used in about 60 percent of abortions nationwide, so banning the drug is essential if conservatives want to curtail medication abortion. In the Louisiana case before the Court, the state argues it’s not able to enforce its ban because pregnant people can obtain the drug via telehealth and use it to induce an abortion.
One of the unexpected consequences of Dobbs has been the effect of medication abortion. And the decision itself continues to have toxicity for Republicans, even if Dobbs didn’t cost them the 2024 presidential election. Donald Trump himself pussyfoots around it, changing position as necessary.
That’s the context for the new mifepristone case we’ve been following. Justice Alito entered a temporary administrative stay to keep the Louisiana law banning telehealth and mail order from going into effect, which we noted Sunday evening in The Week Ahead, “ends on Monday. That means that unless the Supreme Court issues an order regarding whether the injunction should stay in place while the litigation proceeds, the Fifth Circuit’s ban on obtaining the abortion drug via telehealth goes into effect.”
Monday came. But the Court didn’t act. Instead, it just gave itself more time, with Justice Alito extending the stay until Thursday.
snip
Mifepristone is used in about 60 percent of abortions nationwide, so banning the drug is essential if conservatives want to curtail medication abortion. In the Louisiana case before the Court, the state argues it’s not able to enforce its ban because pregnant people can obtain the drug via telehealth and use it to induce an abortion.
One of the unexpected consequences of Dobbs has been the effect of medication abortion. And the decision itself continues to have toxicity for Republicans, even if Dobbs didn’t cost them the 2024 presidential election. Donald Trump himself pussyfoots around it, changing position as necessary.
That’s the context for the new mifepristone case we’ve been following. Justice Alito entered a temporary administrative stay to keep the Louisiana law banning telehealth and mail order from going into effect, which we noted Sunday evening in The Week Ahead, “ends on Monday. That means that unless the Supreme Court issues an order regarding whether the injunction should stay in place while the litigation proceeds, the Fifth Circuit’s ban on obtaining the abortion drug via telehealth goes into effect.”
Monday came. But the Court didn’t act. Instead, it just gave itself more time, with Justice Alito extending the stay until Thursday.
https://msmagazine.com/2026/05/14/medication-abortion-supreme-court-mifepristone-midterms/