(WAVE) – The U. S. Supreme Court temporarily restored access through the mail to the abortion pill Mifepristone.
Justices will now consider emergency appeals from drug companies, after a Louisiana law required women to make in-person purchases.
The High Court’s pending decision could affect choices for hundreds of Kentucky women every month, according to a report from the Society of Family Planning.
The group’s numbers showed that in June 2025, out of 330 Kentucky women having an abortion, 320 opted to take Mifepristone delivered through the mail. It indicates that Mifepristone has become an extremely popular option since Kentucky adopted some of the most restrictive abortion policies in the country. Abortion rights advocates in Louisville expressed concern about Kentucky women who lose their access to the abortion pill, they would have to either travel to Ohio or Illinois to make an in-person purchase or seek an illegal abortion and risk prosecution.
“Gas is high right now; they can’t afford airplanes,” Patricia Fitzgerald, Chair of the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice said. “The majority of women who need these procedures or medications are women of low income, women without means. So even going across town is sometimes hard for them.”
Attempts to obtain comment for this article from the anti-abortion group Kentucky Right To Life were not successful.
Fitzgerald said the Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily allow abortion pills by mail is not giving women who need to make an important decision very much time.
“They are in a state of limbo and panic,” Fitzgerald said. “They don’t know what they can do. They don’t know how much time they have to do it. So obviously, people are scrambling. Those who know that they need access to this medication will be trying to get it in a hurry, but sometimes they need time to get it together.”
Guttmacher lists Kentucky among 17 states with the most restrictive abortion policies.
If mifepristone by mail is struck down, Kentucky women would have to drive to either Illinois or Ohio to make in-person purchases.
Kentucky’s Planned Parenthood released a statement saying in part: “People should know that medication abortion remains safe, effective, and available where it is legal. It’s devastating that Kentucky’s total abortion ban remains in effect, which means neither the 5th Circuit court decision nor the recent Supreme Court ruling changes how Kentuckians can access abortion care in the state.”