The Supreme Court has preserved women’s access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion, rejecting lower-court restrictions while a lawsuit continues. The court’s order Thursday allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the drug, mifepristone, at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. Access is likely to remain uninterrupted at least until well into next year as appeals play out in a suit filed by Louisiana, including a potential appeal to the high court. The court is dealing with its latest abortion controversy four years after its conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.

Marty Makary is resigning as President Donald Trump's Food and Drug Administration chief. The surgeon and health researcher's tenure had drawn complaints from pharmaceutical executives, anti-abortion activists and other Trump allies. The President said Tuesday that Makary “was having some difficulty” but ”he’s going to go on and he’s going to do well.” Makary came to prominence as an outspoken critic of public health measures during the COVID pandemic, when he appeared on Fox News Channel. But at the FDA, Makary failed to win the staff's confidence after mass layoffs, leadership changes and a series of controversies involving vaccines, drugs and electronic cigarettes.

The Supreme Court is leaving women’s access to a widely used abortion pill untouched until at least Thursday, while the justices consider whether to allow restrictions on the drug, mifepristone, to take effect. Justice Samuel Alito’s order Monday allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. It prevents restrictions on mifepristone imposed by a federal appeals court from taking effect for now. The court is dealing with its latest abortion controversy four years after its conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright. Louisiana leads the current challenge.

Recent court rulings on abortion pill access have reignited a contentious political issue in a midterm year. A federal appeals court restricted mail access to mifepristone pills, a common abortion method. The Supreme Court then temporarily restored access on Monday. It’s too early to say whether the rulings will affect the outcome of races this year, when issues around affordability are expected to take top billing for voters. But advocates on both sides hope it will sway voters their way. Some abortion rights groups are strategizing ways to reach voters who may be more motivated to turn out for Democrats. Abortion opponents warn their typically loyal Republican voters are frustrated the Trump administration hasn't done more to ban abortion.

Two makers of the widely used abortion pill mifepristone are asking the Supreme Court to block a lower court’s ruling cutting off mail-order access to the drug. Saturday's emergency request comes a day after the federal appeals court's ruling, the biggest jolt to abortion policy in the U.S. since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Danco Laboratories asked for the block, telling the Supreme Court that the appellate ruling “injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions.” GenBioPro made a similar request.

A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. by blocking the mailing of mifepristone. A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the abortion pill be distributed only in-person at clinics. Since the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed enforcement of abortion bans, prescriptions by mail has become a major way that abortions are provided — including to states where bans are in place. The decision sets up a likely appeal to the Supreme Court.