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In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the right to legal abortion. Since then, one counterintuitive trend has emerged: Even as 19 states have enacted total or near-total abortion bans, the number of abortions provided in the U.S. each year has risen.

The reason is a confluence of advances in medical, logistical, and communication technology. During the first trimester, a pregnancy can be terminated with a series of pills. Those pills can be sent through the mail, and doctors can easily prescribe them on a video call, over the phone, or through digital forms. The expansion of telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic offered a way for clinicians to get abortion medication to patients in every state once Roe v. Wade fell, even in places that outlawed abortion. ­­

The future of that revolutionary advancement in reproductive health was placed in jeopardy earlier this month when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that would have placed new limits on telehealth abortion. Abortion providers were then given a dramatic reprieve on Thursday, when the Supreme Court granted a full stay on that 5th Circuit decision.

The future of abortion telemedicine is still in limbo, however. Though the stay will remain in effect while litigation proceeds, the Supreme Court could make a full ruling on the case in the not-too-distant future. Given the court majority’s far-right leanings, it may allow the attack on abortion telemedicine to go through. But health practitioners have come up with a powerful and easy-to-implement backup plan should the Supreme Court ultimately try to kill abortion telemedicine. Having learned over the past decade that the right will challenge any route to abortion access by any available means, they saw this attack coming and made preparations. Whatever the Supreme Court decides won’t keep patients from getting the abortion drugs they need.

At issue is an old rule that once required mifepristone, commonly known as the “abortion pill,” to be dispensed in person rather than by mail. The Food and Drug Administration paused this restriction in 2021 and permanently ended it in 2023, leading to a boom of telehealth abortion providers. But last year, Louisiana filed a suit in federal court demanding the rule’s return. The complaint argues that the state has standing to bring the lawsuit because “doctors and others are (as the Biden administration intended) sending streams of mifepristone by mail into Louisiana,” preventing officials from “protecting the lives of unborn babies” through the state’s abortion ban.

Louisiana is right about one thing: According to the Society of Family Planning, several hundred Louisiana patients get abortion pills by mail each month. They’re in good company: More than 1 in 4 abortions in the U.S. are now provided remotely. Even in states where abortion is legal and in-person clinics still exist, telehealth remains a popular option. In the........

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