Summary

Since 2023, NWLC has worked alongside coalition partners to oppose the onslaught of attacks on access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in the standard protocol for medication abortion. In years past, NWLC joined two amicus briefs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and two briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court opposing plaintiffs’ attempts in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA to remove FDA approval for mifepristone or severely restrict access by reimposing onerous dispensing requirements. 

In October 2025, Louisiana and one individual plaintiff filed a lawsuit attacking mifepristone: Louisiana v. FDA (W.D. La.). The plaintiffs challenged the FDA’s 2023 modifications to the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for mifepristone, which removed the in-person dispensing requirement and permitted the distribution of mifepristone by mail and retail pharmacies. The U.S. Supreme Court is now considering whether to block a lower court order that would reverse the 2023 modifications and ban dispensing of mifepristone by mail and at retail pharmacies nationwide. 

On December 17, 2025, Louisiana moved for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana seeking to immediately reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement nationwide—in other words, to force every mifepristone patient in the country to travel to a health center just to be handed the pill, even when they have already been thoroughly evaluated and counseled through telemedicine and there is no clinical reason for this visit. 

 On April 7, the district court denied the motion for a preliminary injunction and issued a stay in the case pending the FDA’s ongoing review of its mifepristone regulations. Plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and moved for an injunction pending appeal, which the appellate court granted on May 1. This ruling reinstated an in-person dispensing requirement, meaning that providers across the country could no longer mail mifepristone to their patients—the most significant federal court ruling affecting abortion access since Dobbs. 

Two companies that manufacture mifepristone, both of which had intervened in this matter, swiftly filed petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the Fifth Circuit’s judgment. The Supreme Court entered a temporary stay on May 4. 

Our Amicus Briefs

On February 20, NWLC joined an amicus brief on behalf of more than 100 reproductive rights, health, and justice movement organizations to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, opposing the preliminary injunction motion. Our brief details the overwhelming evidence of mifepristone’s safety, including when provided through telemedicine, and debunks the other side’s junk science. The brief further emphasizes the importance of mifepristone (and medication abortion generally) to people’s health and autonomy and explains how telemedicine is essential to accessing abortion and miscarriage care following Dobbs. Finally, the brief breaks down the harmful medical, personal, professional, and educational consequences that plaintiffs’ requested relief could have on communities across the nation, particularly for people in rural areas, low-income communities, communities of color, and for survivors of intimate partner violence. 

On May 7, 2026, NWLC once again joined an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court representing more than 150 reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations. The brief affirms the safety and efficacy of mifepristone and details the many harms that would flow from cutting off access to this essential medication by mail and at pharmacies, harms that would disproportionately fall on communities that already face barriers to care.