This Supreme Court order provides immediate, if short-term, relief to women and their providers following the Fifth Circuit’s disruptive decision to reinstate in-person physician visits to obtain a prescription for mifepristone.

In recent years since Roe v. Wade was struck down by the Supreme Court, access through telemedicine and mail delivery has become a critical reproductive care pathway, particularly for those in states with severe abortion restrictions. 

Medication abortions now account for 53% of all procedures to end pregnancies. For more than two decades, mifepristone—approved by the FDA in 2000 and supported by extensive scientific research—has been safely used by millions of women. 

The lower court’s ruling threatened to upend that access nationwide. It would have imposed immediate barriers not only in states with abortion bans but also in those where abortion remains legal, creating confusion and delaying time-sensitive care.

While today’s action by the Supreme Court restores access for now, it is only a temporary reprieve. The broader legal battle continues, and so does a coordinated effort by anti-abortion politicians and activists to erode reproductive freedom piece by piece by restricting access to care, and denying women the ability to make their own private decisions about pregnancy.