Abortion Pill Available For Now In MI After Supreme Court Extends Stay

MICHIGAN — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily extended the stay on a lower court ruling that would have changed how the abortion pill mifepristone is administered.

That means things won’t change for Michigan women seeking medical abortions— at least not for now. The brief order, signed by Justice Samuel Alito, extends the stay until 11:59 p.m. Friday, giving the justices more time to study the issue.

The anticipated Supreme Court ruling will come just after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation repealing a nearly century-old law banning abortions in Michigan, placing the state among 12 other states who have moved to protect reproductive freedoms and access to safe, legal abortion in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson. That legislation also eliminated penalties for advertising or publishing about abortion, or providing drugs for the purpose of procuring an abortion.

The case before the high court stems from a Texas judge’s April 7 ruling favoring the Alliance Defending Freedom. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered a hold on federal approval of mifepristone, the drug that is used to carry out a majority of U.S. abortions and was approved by the FDA in 2000. Kacsmaryk’s decision overruled decades of scientific approval.

Less than a week later, a federal appeals court modified the ruling so that mifepristone would remain available while the case continues, but with limits. The appeals court said that the drug can’t be mailed or dispensed as a generic and that patients who seek it need to make three in-person visits with a doctor, among other things.

The generic version of mifepristone makes up two-thirds of the supply in the United States, its manufacturer, Las Vegas-based GenBioPro Inc., wrote in a court filing that underscored the perils of allowing the restrictions to be put into effect.

The court also said the drug should only be approved through seven weeks of pregnancy for now, even though the FDA since 2016 has endorsed its use through 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Complicating the situation, a ruling by a federal judge in Washington ordered the FDA to preserve access to mifepristone in 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia that filed a separate lawsuit.

The Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of the drug, have asked the Supreme Court to reject limits on mifepristone’s use imposed by lower courts, at least as long as the legal case makes it way through the courts.

The Biden administration has said the rulings conflict and create an untenable situation for the FDA, and that women who want the drug and providers who dispense it will face chaos if limits on the drug take effect.

Justice Samuel Alito put the restrictions on hold through Wednesday to give the court time to consider the emergency appeal.

The Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last June, and states have since put together a patchwork of abortion laws. A dozen states have enacted laws so restrictive that abortions are effectively banned.

In Michigan, Whitmer recently signed legislation that repealed a nearly-century old law banning abortions in Michigan. The legislation was signed after Michiganders overwhelmingly approved Proposal 3, nullifying the 1931 abortion ban and amending the state's constitution to protect abortion rights.

Even in states where abortion is legal and available, providers would have to limit services to in-clinic procedural abortion if mifepristone became unavailable or switch to a misoprostol-only abortion regime, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The drug can be used alone to terminate pregnancies, but medical experts have said it is not as effective as the standard two-pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol.

Also, patients whose providers prescribe abortion pills during clinic visits or via telehealth would no longer be able to pick them up from participating pharmacies or in the mail.

The impact would be far greater in 10 states — Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington — where women’ access would be even more limited if providers don’t offer a regimen of misoprostol alone, according to Guttmacher.

The Associated Press contributed reporting