Danco Laboratories Asks US Supreme Court To Restore Mail-Order Access To Mifepristone

A pharmaceutical company that makes the abortion pill mifepristone asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a lower court placed significant restrictions on access to the pill by mail.

“Supreme Court asked to restore access to mail-order abortion pill mifepristone An appeals court on Friday barred the telehealth distribution of the pill”

ABC News

In a decision issued on Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily reinstated a requirement that abortion pills be obtained in person, a move that “will, for now, curb access to abortion pills” in states where abortion is banned, according to the BBC.

ABC News

The BBC described the Friday order as stemming from a lawsuit brought by the state of Louisiana, and said the decision would remain in effect as the case plays out.

Danco Laboratories, the pharmaceutical company that makes mifepristone, asked the Supreme Court to pause the ruling, “temporarily restoring access to the pill,” the BBC reported.

The Washington Post said two drug manufacturers asked the Supreme Court on Saturday to temporarily allow patients to continue to access mifepristone through the mail, with Danco filing first and GenBioPro following later Saturday.

ABC News similarly said an appeals court on Friday barred the telehealth distribution of the pill, and that Danco asked the Supreme Court to lift the lower court’s ruling prohibiting health providers from dispensing the abortion pill by mail.

PBS added that the appeals court’s unanimous Friday ruling required that mifepristone be distributed only in person and at clinics, “overruling regulations set by the federal Food and Drug Administration.”

The dispute over mifepristone access has been shaped by shifting federal rules and by litigation tied to Louisiana’s ban.

The BBC said the FDA allowed doctors to send pills without seeing patients in person in 2023, giving women the ability to receive the pills by mail or at a pharmacy through telemedicine.

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It added that the drugs’ availability was expanded in April 2021, when the FDA said it would lift the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic, and that in 2023 the FDA permanently lifted that requirement so the medication could be sent by mail.

ABC News said the lower court’s order took effect immediately and temporarily blocked 2023 Food and Drug Administration guidelines from the Biden administration, citing an ongoing safety review by the Trump administration.

WRAL described the Friday appellate action as effectively reimposing an FDA requirement that healthcare providers prescribe mifepristone only after seeing patients in person, and said the rule was first lifted in 2021.

WRAL also said the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday sided with Louisiana and ordered that in-person dispensing be reinstated until the Louisiana lawsuit made its way through the courts.

PBS framed the Friday ruling as a “substantial victory for abortion opponents” seeking to stem the flow of abortion pills prescribed online, and said it overruled FDA regulations.

The BBC also noted that in 2024 the US Supreme Court unanimously rejected an effort to restrict access to mifepristone, while leaving “the door open to other attempts to limit the availability of the drug.”

As the case moved toward the Supreme Court, multiple named figures and organizations offered sharply different interpretations of what the Friday ruling would do.

Danco Laboratories argued that the lower court’s action would cause immediate disruption, with the filing warning that “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,” a line repeated by both the BBC and ABC News.

The BBC also quoted Danco’s lawyers describing the “resulting chaos” as “a quintessential irreparable harm,” and said the Supreme Court request came after the Fifth Circuit temporarily reinstated the in-person requirement.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill celebrated the appellate decision, telling reporters that the Biden-era rule “facilitated the deaths of thousands of Louisiana babies (and millions in other states),” while she said, “I look forward to continuing to defend women and babies as this case continues,” according to the BBC.

In contrast, Julia Kaye of the ACLU said in a statement that “This decision defies clear science and settled law and advances an anti-abortion agenda that is deeply unpopular with the American people,” the BBC reported.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Friday that abortion access would continue to be legal in her state, adding, “That has not changed, and we will continue to protect access to abortion, including medication abortion,” the BBC said.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, called the ruling “a huge victory for victims and survivors of Biden's reckless mail-order abortion drug regime,” the BBC reported.

PBS added that Mary Ziegler, an expert on abortion law and a professor at University of California at Davis School of Law, said, “We're now going to see, I think in a way we haven't before, what the nation will look like when abortion bans are actually in effect.”

Coverage of the Friday Fifth Circuit ruling and the subsequent Supreme Court emergency appeals diverged in emphasis, even when describing the same core change: the shift away from mail-order and telehealth distribution of mifepristone.

The BBC foregrounded the legal and scientific dispute, describing the Supreme Court’s earlier unanimous rejection in 2024 and quoting both Liz Murrill’s celebration and the ACLU’s response, while also explaining that mifepristone is “the first of a two-pill regimen recommended by the FDA to end a pregnancy.”

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PBS, by contrast, framed the ruling as a “huge access issue for patients that haven't got providers close by, or providers close by who are willing to prescribe,” quoting Josh Thorburn, owner of Eddie's Pharmacy in Los Angeles, and it also described the case as “the biggest jolt to abortion policy in the U.S. since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.”

Politico emphasized the procedural posture, saying the Supreme Court would decide whether to overrule an appeals court that found in Louisiana's favor, and it quoted Danco’s argument that “tremendous uncertainty will surround the legal status of mifepristone throughout the country” unless the high court steps in.

WRAL focused on the nationwide operational impact, saying the lower court’s order could “sow confusion and upend a major avenue for abortion access across the country — not just in states with abortion bans,” and it tied the change to the 5th Circuit’s reinstatement of an in-person dispensing requirement.

InsideNoVa and MS NOW both described the emergency appeal as seeking to restore access after a lower court halted mail delivery, but InsideNoVa added that Danco asked the Supreme Court to stay a Friday decision that temporarily blocked abortion providers from prescribing and shipping the drug nationwide.

Across outlets, the repeated phrase from Danco’s filings—“injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions”—appeared in multiple reports, including ABC News and WRAL, underscoring how the companies’ framing traveled through different editorial lenses.

The next phase of the dispute centers on whether the Supreme Court will grant an emergency administrative stay and whether the litigation will continue while the justices consider the case.

The BBC said Danco asked the Supreme Court to intervene and pause the ruling and that the decision would remain in effect as the case plays out, while the Washington Post said Danco filed an emergency appeal after the 5th Circuit ruling Friday and that GenBioPro also formally requested the justices weigh in later Saturday.

Associated Press

ABC News said the stay was in place as litigation continued and that the application came two years after the justices unanimously rejected a similar legal challenge, concluding that the doctors and anti-abortion groups who sued over the drug did not have standing.

WRAL said the request came after a lower court on Friday temporarily restricted abortion providers nationwide from prescribing the pills by telemedicine and sending them to patients by mail, and it described the Supreme Court request as putting the issue back before the justices “in an election year.”

PBS added that the case was expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court and that it could again make abortion a key issue in the midterm elections as Democrats aim to take back control of the House and Republicans fight to hold on to a narrow majority.

Politico reported that Danco and GenBioPro requested an immediate administrative stay while the case makes its way through lower courts and asked the Supreme Court to take up the issue and hear arguments before its summer recess.

The BBC also described the scientific and regulatory stakes by noting that mifepristone works by blocking a hormone called progesterone, while the second drug misoprostol “empties the uterus,” and it said the American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists (ACOG) and other mainstream medical organisations say both drugs are safe.

In the same reporting, the BBC said US studies say the two-step medication regime is about 95% effective in ending pregnancy and requires further medical follow-up less than 1% of the time, tying the legal fight to the medical regimen at the center of the case.