A maker of the widely used abortion pill mifepristone asked the Supreme Court to block an appellate court ruling that cut off mail-order access to the drug just a day earlier, in what was the biggest jolt to abortion policy in the U.S. since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.  It must be tested. 

     Danco Laboratories, which is also a defendant in the lawsuit in question, asked to block the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision while appeals are pending, saying the appellate ruling "injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions."

     The appeals court's unanimous ruling marked a substantial victory for abortion opponents seeking to stem the flow of abortion pills prescribed online, which they view as subverting state bans. It requires that mifepristone be distributed only in person and at clinics, overruling regulations set by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

     "Every abortion facilitated by FDA's action cancels Louisiana's ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that 'every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,'" the ruling states.  In their ruling, the judges stated that the current regulation "creates an effective way for an out-of-state prescriber to place the drug in the hands of Louisianans in defiance of Louisiana law." Judges have long deferred to the FDA's judgments on the safety and appropriate regulation of drugs.