A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The abortion pill mifepristone can be prescribed online and sent through the mail until at least early next week.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an order Monday temporarily pausing an appeals court decision. Louisiana brought the case against the Food and Drug Administration, arguing that access to medication abortion should be restricted.
MARTÍNEZ: Here to discuss this is Julie Rovner, a longtime health policy journalist. So, Julie, the ruling that's on hold is from the 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans. It said mifepristone could not be mailed anywhere in the country. What happened once that decision came down?
JULIE ROVNER: Well, I think it's safe to say there was mass confusion. Medication abortion today accounts for more than 60% of all abortions in the U.S., most of them using this drug. Mifepristone is also used to treat miscarriage. It's not just an abortion drug. And this order attempted to roll back its availability dramatically. Doctors, patients and drugmakers all had no idea what it meant on the ground. And I should add that this came as kind of a surprise, not just because the ruling came down on a Friday after 5 p.m. in the East but because the Trump administration itself had asked the lower court to put the case on hold until the FDA finishes an ongoing review of mifepristone's safety. Presumably, that won't happen until much later this year.
MARTÍNEZ: So that brings us, then, to Justice Alito's order. What did that do?
ROVNER: Well, Justice Alito has only stayed the ruling for a week - until next Monday. Parties in the case have just a couple of days to deliver their arguments to the justices. And next week, the court could continue to keep the status quo, where telehealth abortion is available, or it could allow the appeals court ruling to take effect or could do something else entirely. We'll have to wait and see.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, if memory serves, I know that mifepristone access has been before the high court before.
ROVNER: That's right. There was a case out of Texas in 2023. That case asked not just for availability to be rolled back to what it was prior to 2021 - that's when patients physically had to get the pill handed to them by a doctor - but it asked the court to cancel the pill's FDA approval altogether. That original approval, by the way, goes back more than a quarter of a century to when Bill Clinton was president. In that case, though, the court didn't get to the question of whether or not mifepristone should remain available because the doctors group that brought the suit didn't have standing to sue, so the justices effectively punted. That's less likely with this case out of Louisiana.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, does this affect the political landscape ahead of the midterms?
ROVNER: Oh, yeah. This is something that the Trump administration almost certainly does not welcome. Anti-abortion groups have been increasingly vocal about their frustration that the president hasn't done more to limit, if not outlaw the abortion pill. And the telehealth option has basically allowed women to get around most state bans in the 20 states that now have them. President Trump has said several times he doesn't want to impose more restrictions on abortion because, while anti-abortion groups may have a big megaphone and a lot of money, most voters support abortion rights, even in many of those red states. So instead of being able to finesse the issue between now and November, it certainly looks like abortion is going to be front and center in this year's elections, too.
MARTÍNEZ: Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent with NPR's partner KFF Health News. Julie, thanks.
ROVNER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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