Supreme Court decisions are expected this month about legal doctor and mail-order prescriptions of the FDA-approved abortion pill, mifepristone, as well as whether health practitioners can provide pregnant patients with stabilizing emergency services such as an abortion where appropriate and essential for stabilization or survival.

FDA V. ALLIANCE FOR HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE (Docket number 23-235; argued March 26, 2024): Medication abortion uses a mix of mifepristone and misoprostol. The FDA approved mifepristone in September 2000 and had been used up until April 2023 for abortions via medication until recent decisions by lower courts where the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and other plaintiffs argued against the use of and FDA approval of mifepristone. In this case, the plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to restrict prescriptions of mifepristone for abortions and miscarriages given the Dobbs decision. If the decisions by the two lower courts including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stand, healthcare practitioners would be prohibited from prescribing mifepristone and individuals would be prohibited from filling prescriptions of mifepristone via mail order that were approved during Covid.

IDAHO & MOYLE ET. AL V. US (Docket number 23-726; argued April 24, 2024): Politicians in Idaho argued before the Supreme Court that healthcare providers do not need to abide by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) that requires that patients can not be turned away for services based on insurance status and also requires that patients are adequately stabilized after emergencies. After the Dobbs decision, the Department of Health and Human Services requires that healthcare providers administer abortions if the stabilization of pregnant patients requires the procedure to stabilize their condition.

Currently in Idaho, healthcare providers face jail time if they follow the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Idaho politicians want to make their state law applicable to other states that have similar extreme abortion bans.