Enlarge / Abortion rights advocates rally outside the US Supreme Court on April 14, 2023, in Washington, DC, speaking out against abortion pill restrictions. (credit: Getty | OLIVIER DOULIERY)

The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court’s ruling that would have curtailed access to the abortion medication mifepristone beginning on Saturday. The temporary block will preserve the status quo access to mifepristone for five days, or until midnight on Wednesday, giving the high court time to review emergency appeals and consider issuing a longer stay on the ruling.

The freeze is the latest turn in a fast-moving, high-stakes case over not only access to the safe and effective abortion medication but also the fate of the Food and Drug Administration’s overall authority to regulate drugs in the country.

Last week, a federal judge in Texas, District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, issued a ruling revoking the FDA’s nearly 23-year-old approval of mifepristone. Kacsmaryk, a conservative Donald Trump appointee, ruled that the FDA erred in approving the drug and that there was insufficient data on its safety, despite dozens of studies, decades of real-world data on millions of pregnancies, and extensive reviews from the regulatory agency.