On April 14, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. ordered mifepristone to remain available for at least another five days as the Supreme Court mulls the case.
He ordered a stay on a legal case filed in Texas that sought to overturn the FDA's approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs for medication abortion, a regimen the agency approved in 2000. The stay means the drug's current approved status and access will remain.
Mr. Alito said the stay will last until 11:59 p.m. EDT on April 19, and he ordered all responses to the case to be submitted by noon EDT on April 18.
The drug's access has seemed to wildly change in the past week. After organizations and physicians filed a case against the FDA in November over mifepristone's approval status and safety, a federal judge ruled April 7 to suspend the drug — an order that has met heavy criticism. The defendants appealed, and a three-judge panel in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled April 12 to partially overturn the Texas judge's decision.
The appeals court said the statute of limitations bars retracting the drug's approval but ruled against a 2016 change that allowed the drug to be mail ordered and used in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of the first seven.
On April 13, the Justice Department appealed. The next day, the Biden administration filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to intervene. Access to mifepristone — which has been used by more than 5 million people, according to its maker, Danco Laboratories — is now stabilized as the Supreme Court evaluates the case.
No final decision has been made.