“We recognize that many citizens, including the plaintiff doctors here, have sincere concerns about and objections to others using mifepristone and obtaining abortions,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the unanimous decision.
“But citizens and doctors do not have standing to sue simply because others are allowed to engage in certain activities,” he added.
Essentially, that means nothing is changing. The drug will remain available to people up to the 10th week of pregnancy and will still be available through the mail. Nurses and other non-physicians are still allowed to prescribe it.
But access depends on where you live.
Walgreens and CVS in March said they would fill prescriptions for mifepristone “in states where it is legally allowed.”
Abortion is almost completely banned in more than a dozen states, meaning mifepristone is illegal.
Some states have essentially banned telemedicine abortion by requiring a physician to be in the same room as the patient when administering the medications. Arizona has banned them from being mailed.
Still, medication abortion use has soared in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ending Roe v. Wade, and accounts for about two-thirds of pregnancy terminations nationwide.
There are a handful of providers in blue states that prescribe abortion pills through telehealth shield laws, but they don’t operate in every state, and red states are looking for ways to stop the practice.
