Supreme Court extends freeze on abortion pill restrictions

The Supreme Court extended a freeze Monday on new restrictions for dispensing the widely used abortion pill mifepristone, allowing the continued mail-order prescribing of the drug.

Why it matters: The extension, which runs through 5 p.m. Thursday, provides a reprieve for pharmacies, telehealth companies and clinicians caught up in the latest legal tussle over accessing the pill.

Driving the news: Justice Samuel Alito extended a stay he granted a week ago in response to requests from drugmakers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro to restore access to mifepristone via teleprescribing and the mails.

• Anti-abortion advocates have been calling for a rollback of a Biden administration policy that expanded access to mifepristone and removed a requirement that patients see a provider in person before getting the medication.
• The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month sided with Louisiana in a case challenging the Biden administration rules.
• Louisiana argued the federal rules undermined its laws protecting unborn human life and caused it to spend Medicaid funds on emergency care for women harmed by mifepristone.