How Kris Mayes Helped Block a Nationwide Abortion Pill Crackdown

Attorney General Kris Mayes (D-AZ) is claiming a partial victory after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily restored broad access to mifepristone, the widely used abortion pill, reversing a lower court ruling that had threatened to significantly limit how women across the country obtain the medication.

AG Mayes had been building her case since January, when she joined a 24-state coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to reverse a Fifth Circuit appeals court ruling that reinstated restrictions on mifepristone that the FDA had already determined were medically unnecessary.

"Mifepristone has been used safely and effectively by millions of Americans for over twenty years," Mayes said. "Allowing the Fifth Circuit's ruling to go into effect would harm countless Americans and cause widespread confusion nationwide."

Central to the coalition's argument was the concern that the lower court's decision ignored decades of clinical research confirming the drug's safety and effectiveness.

The brief warned that rolling back FDA-approved access standards from 2016, which had expanded how the drug could be prescribed and dispensed, would force many patients toward more invasive procedural abortions, drive up costs, and cut off reproductive health care entirely for low-income and underserved communities.

Coaltion Sounding Alarm

The coalition also raised a broader alarm: that undermining the FDA's drug approval process could stifle medical innovation and destabilize the regulatory framework governing thousands of medications nationwide.

The Supreme Court ultimately sided with Mayes and her coalition, with Justice Samuel Alito signing an order temporarily blocking the Fifth Circuit ruling and restoring pharmacy and mail access to mifepristone, methods that had been standard for years before last week's appeals court decision.

"Today's stay from the Supreme Court is a critical — if temporary — victory for the women of Arizona and across this country who depend on mifepristone for their health care," Mayes posted on X.

The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000, and an estimated 7.5 million people have used it safely since. The Supreme Court's order is temporary, and the broader legal battle is expected to continue.

"I will not stop fighting to ensure that every Arizonan can access reproductive health care,” she concluded.