As of May 2, 2026, mifepristone manufacturer Danco Laboratories has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to freeze a federal appeals court order that cut off telehealth and mail-order access to the Mifepristone abortion pill nationwide, warning that letting the ruling stand will produce "immediate chaos" for patients and providers in every state.
The emergency application, filed Saturday, asks the justices to temporarily restore a 2023 Food and Drug Administration policy that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Friday, and to take up the merits before the court's summer recess.
The Friday ruling, written by Judge Kyle Duncan and joined by Judges Leslie Southwick and Kurt Engelhardt, granted Louisiana a stay pending appeal under the Administrative Procedure Act, reinstating an in-person dispensing requirement the FDA had removed.
The unanimous panel found Louisiana likely to succeed on the merits and said the equities favored the state, concluding the 2023 rule facilitated abortions in defiance of Louisiana's ban and forced the state to spend Medicaid dollars on emergency care.
The order applies nationwide.
Duncan wrote that the Supreme Court's 2025 decision in CASA, which curbed nationwide injunctions, did not bar APA relief.
Legal analyst Steve Vladeck called the panel's reliance on APA vacatur a deliberate workaround.
Danco first asked the 5th Circuit late Friday for a one-week pause to seek review by the high court.
When the panel did not act, the company went directly to the justices, requesting an immediate administrative stay and expedited argument. Politico reported GenBioPro, the other mifepristone manufacturer, is expected to file its own appeal.
Mifepristone, approved in 2000 and used with misoprostol, accounts for the majority of U.S. abortions.
The Society of Family Planning reported that more than 27 percent of abortions in the first half of 2025 were provided by telehealth. The 5th Circuit's order also blocks telemedicine prescriptions for managing miscarriages.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, called the ruling a victory.
The Trump administration declined to defend the FDA rule on the merits but argued Louisiana's suit had procedural defects; the panel rejected that argument and a separate standing challenge from the drugmakers.
The FDA, which announced a fresh mifepristone safety review in September 2025, told the court it could not say when that review would conclude.
Industry executives quoted by Politico warned the ruling could expose other FDA-approved drugs, including hormone therapy and vaccines, to similar litigation.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said access to medication should not be decided by judges without medical training. The American Civil Liberties Union said rural patients, low-income patients, and survivors of intimate partner violence will bear the highest cost.
The Supreme Court in 2024 unanimously preserved mifepristone access by ruling that prior challengers, a coalition of anti-abortion physicians, lacked standing. The current case reaches the justices on a different posture, with a state plaintiff invoking the APA.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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