Metro-east clinics ‘back to status quo’ as court halts abortion pill ban
Southern Illinois clinics that provide abortions are once again allowed to dispense an abortion medication through the mail and with telehealth appointments following a U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday.
The court placed a one-week hold on major changes to how mifepristone can be prescribed. It’s commonly prescribed with another pill, misoprostol, to induce abortions.
Planned Parenthood in Fairview Heights and CHOICES clinic in Carbondale use telehealth to prescribe the pill mifepristone to people in Illinois.
A Louisiana appeals court ruling late last week halted clinics’ ability to dispense the medicine through the mail and through telehealth over the weekend.
That appeals court sided with the State of Louisiana, which argued that mailing the medication violates the state’s abortion ban. Friday’s decision meant at least one southern Illinois clinic, Planned Parenthood in Fairview Heights, had to move appointments to in-person visits.
The Supreme Court on Monday put the Louisiana court’s decision on hold, and the metro-east clinic is “back to the status quo,” said a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which operates health centers in the St. Louis region.
The Planned Parenthood affiliate is back to prescribing mifepristone through telemedicine appointments, she said. The organization’s providers only prescribe the medicine to Illinois residents who are physically present in the state at the time of their appointment.
Because the appeals court decision and its Supreme Court response occurred over the weekend, appointments at CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health weren’t affected.
“Luckily, we did not have to immediately change or cease operations since we did not have telehealth medication abortion visits scheduled on Saturday,” said Caitlin Lloyd, CHOICES communications and outreach lead, in an email.
She said officials at the organization, which also operates a clinic in Memphis, are keeping their eyes peeled for new developments from the Supreme Court.
“The continuous back-and-forth on this ruling is meant to spread misinformation and cause confusion to abortion seekers,” Lloyd said.
Michele Landeau, chief operating officer at Hope Clinic in Granite City, said that while the clinic only dispenses mifepristone in person, patients on Monday were still confused about whether the medication was available.
Abortion medication is currently unavailable in Missouri. A Jackson County judge is considering a case that would drop many statewide laws that restrict the procedure.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration removed in-person prescribing requirements for mifepristone and allowed it to be provided through telemedicine appointments in some states. The FDA made those changes permanent in 2023.
Mifepristone has been a target for anti-abortion activists and politicians in Missouri and beyond. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, has called for the FDA to revoke its approval for the pill and prohibit its use in abortions.
Missouri became the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit that seeks to overturn the prescribing changes after the case was transferred from Texas. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has challenged the labeling of generic mifepristone in federal court.