Supreme Court Refuses To Block Lower Court Order On Abortion Pills

The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Wednesday morning, Oct. 7, 2020. President Donald Trump’s nominee to the high court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, is scheduled to face the Senate Judiciary Committee next Monday, Oct. 12, 2020.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused, for now, to reimpose FDA regulations that require women seeking medication abortion to pick up the prescribed pills in person at a clinic instead of by mail.

The court’s decision came Thursday night on a 6-to-2 vote that rejected an emergency appeal from the Trump administration.

The challenge to the FDA regulation was brought by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists after the the agency relaxed similar regulations for other drugs–including opioids–in order to limit patients’ exposure to Covid-19 during the pandemic, but refused to relax the same rule for those with prescriptions for abortions with pills in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.