Mifepristone tablets. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
As the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily halts a ban on telehealth abortion pill services, reproductive rights advocates and clinics in Ohio say the potential loss of this type of abortion access will create uncertainty and have a direct impact on public health and well-being.
The Supreme Court of the United States, in particular Justice Samuel Alito, ordered a week’s break at the federal level Decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals which prevented access to mifepristone, a drug used in abortion, by mail or any other means other than personal distribution.
The district court took up the case after challenging in Louisiana the FDA’s “justifications for remote dispensing of mifepristone,” which Louisiana officials said were “based on erroneous or nonexistent data.”
Following the appeals court’s May 1 decision, pharmaceutical companies that produce mifepristone asked for a pause.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that distribution of mifepristone would be allowed for a week while the court takes further steps in the appeals process.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio praised the pause, adding that restricting drugs “would have devastating consequences in Ohio and across the country.”
“Decades of research and peer-reviewed studies demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of mifepristone,” Dr. Bhavik Kumar, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, said in a statement.
“We sincerely hope that the Supreme Court will make this restoration permanent so that patients continue to have access to this vital health care.”
Planned Parenthoods of Greater Ohio plans to operate as usual through May 11, providing telehealth, mail-in care and in-person abortion care.
Telehealth is the leading method of abortion care in Ohio, trending upward in the latest annual abortion report released by the Ohio Department of Health.
Kumar called the appeals court’s decision “another politically motivated attack on abortion.”
“This decision dictates how physicians practice medicine and eliminates patients’ personal health care choices,” Kumar said.
Mifepristone has been approved by the FDA for decades, and decades of research have confirmed their safety, even though anti-abortion advocates say the drugs pose a risk to pregnant women overall.
“Americans have been using mifepristone safely and effectively to terminate pregnancies since it was approved a quarter-century ago,” said Kellie Copeland, executive director of the abortion rights group Abortion Forward.
“The actions of a single federal court in Louisiana constitute both a drastic overreach, impacting patients far beyond their jurisdiction, and an unacceptable obstruction to those in need of options.”
While Ohio passed a constitutional amendment in 2023 to add abortion rights to the state constitution, Republican state lawmakers have worked to circumvent the amendment in an attempt to not only further regulate abortion care but also discourage funding for clinics that perform abortions.
Trumbull County Probate Judge David Engler also practices law trying to reject the state amendmentclaiming that the constitutional clause prevents him from adjudicating on cases in which a minor asks the court for permission to perform an abortion without the parents’ consent, which involves a long-standing legal method called judicial bypass.
The lawsuit is supported by the anti-abortion group Ohio Right to Life, which has sought to drum up support for legislative measures to further regulate abortion as well.
“Parents, and if necessary, their probate judge, should retain the opportunity to be involved in a decision this momentous when it involves their minor daughter,” said Carrie Snyder, executive director of Ohio Right to Life.
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