Note: This post has been updated to reflect the most recent information.
Yesterday (May 14), the U.S. Supreme Court maintained access to the abortion medication mifepristone through telehealth. The ruling followed a previous Supreme Court order on May 4 that temporarily reinstated a federal rule allowing mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth and dispensed by mail.
These Supreme Court actions pause, for now, a May 1 lower-court ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (Louisiana v. FDA), which would have blocked mail orders for mifepristone and required in-person visits with clinicians for medication abortion nationwide.
The 5th Circuit decision would have significantly limited patient access to this safe, effective, and essential healthcare across the country. Wisconsin law already prohibits medication abortion via telehealth, but shield laws have enabled Wisconsinites to access that care.
The case now returns to a lower court. CORE will continue to monitor this and other legal developments affecting reproductive autonomy and access, and to produce and share research to support evidence-based policy. Hundreds of studies and decades of real-life experience establish the safety of mifepristone and telehealth abortion care.
Wisconsin-specific evidence and perspective:
- Abortion care in Wisconsin remains available but is highly restricted by state law, making it difficult, if not impossible, for people to access the abortion care they seek.
- Wisconsin restrictions prohibit the use of telehealth for abortion care and include some of the country’s most restrictive medication abortion laws.
- CORE research documents that many Wisconsinites face significant barriers to getting the abortion care they want because of legal restrictions, cost, travel, and other structural hurdles. As a result, some Wisconsinites must leave the state for care, others order abortion pills online from out-of-state clinicians (shield law providers), and still others are forced to carry pregnancies to term.
- Evidence shows that about one-third of recent abortions for Wisconsin residents were medication abortion obtained through telehealth from out-of-state shield law providers.
- From shortly before the Dobbs decision through June 2025 (the most recent data available), more than 4,400 Wisconsinites obtained medication abortion pills via telehealth from shield law providers, and the average number of monthly orders has steadily increased.
Other key details:
- Extensive research documents that telehealth for medication abortion is safe and effective.
- Nationwide evidence shows that as of December 2025, more than 1 in 4 (28%) clinician-provided abortions in the U.S. were via telehealth. In states where telehealth abortion is permitted, that share is larger, with telehealth accounting for up to 40% of abortions in 2025.
- Telehealth provision of medication abortion reduces barriers to care, especially for people who live far from clinics, have low incomes, or are younger.
- Research demonstrates that the denial of wanted abortion care harms pregnant people, their families, and communities.
- People can also have a safe and effective medication abortion with a different drug, misoprostol, which is not affected by the Louisiana court case.
Related CORE briefs:
- Medication abortion in Wisconsin: Access pathways, policy barriers, and legal threats
- How shield laws expand abortion access for Wisconsinites
- Three years after Dobbs, what’s the state of abortion in Wisconsin?
- Impacts of abortion restrictions on pregnant people, their partners, families, and communities