Healey Pushes to Keep Telehealth Abortion Access as Supreme Court Deadline Nears
The stay preserves telemedicine and mail access for now as the case tests FDA authority and state efforts to curb medication abortion.
- On Monday, May 4, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay, suspending a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that would have restricted mifepristone access nationwide through mail and telehealth until Monday, May 11.
- Louisiana officials prompted the legal challenge by asking the 5th Circuit to reinstate in-person prescription requirements; Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan agreed on May 1, ruling telemedicine access "injures Louisiana by undermining its laws."
- Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is pushing to maintain access via mail and telehealth, joining state officials to "emphasize Massachusetts' commitment to protecting access to reproductive health care." Providers there mailed over 50,000 medication abortion pills nationwide last year.
- Uncertainty has sent "shockwaves" through medicine, as legal expert Mary Ziegler notes the case forces politicians to weigh in during an election year, while critics argue the decision "would upend FDA's gold-standard, science-based drug approval system."
- If the Supreme Court allows the stay to expire on Monday, telemedicine access to mifepristone could end nationwide, disproportionately affecting patients in rural areas and those with limited resources who rely on mail delivery.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Nurses demand Supreme Court put an end to attacks on patients' reproductive health care decisions
As the legal battle continues over access to Mifepristone, commonly known as the abortion pill, National Nurses United demands an end to what nurses say is “an all-out class war against health care for women.” On May 4, the Supreme Court restored nationwide access to mifepristone by mail, pausing until at least May 11 a lower-court ruling in Louisiana v. FDA that had restricted it.
Mifepristone ruling could halt mailed abortion pills in ‘shield states’ like Maryland
More than 500 Marylanders each month get abortion medication mailed to them via telehealth services, but that could be put in jeopardy when the Supreme Court decides Monday whether to allow a lower court's ban on the practice to take effect. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)Every month, an estimated 500-plus Marylanders receive abortion medication that was mailed to them after a telehealth medical visit, a convenient method for terminatin…
Gov. Healey calls for protections for abortion drug mifepristone
As a battle over the restrictions on access to the abortion drug mifepristone plays out in the courts, Gov. Maura Healey on Friday will call on the U.S. Supreme Court justices to uphold accessibility and protect reproductive rights. The ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would require that mifepristone be distributed only in person and at clinics. However, the Supreme Court temporarily paused that decision, which m…
Ashley Moody once threatened pharmacies that mailed abortion pills. Will the Supreme Court allow the practice?
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a short reprieve on a lower court’s ban on mailing abortion pills. But abortion rights activists say women’s health remains in jeopardy in states like Florida. Meanwhile, critics are questioning motives of Florida officials including U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody for trying to halt mail deliveries of mifepristone in the first place. Moody, while she still served as Florida Attorney General, was among 20 Republican Att…
With legal briefs in, Supreme Court weighs telehealth access for the abortion pill
After an appeals court tried to end telemedicine access to mifepristone, one of the two pills used in a medication abortion, the Supreme Court stepped in. Here's what's happened and what's to come.
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