The Supreme Court has temporarily extended women’s access to an abortion pill until Friday as judges consider whether restrictions on mifepristone should go into effect as legal challenges to the drug’s FDA approval continue.

In an order signed by Judge Samuel Alito on Wednesday, the court indicated it will act Friday night.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s past story follows below: WASHINGTON (AP) The

High Council

decides whether women will face restrictions on obtaining a drug used in the most common method of abortion in the United States, while a lawsuit continues. The judges are expected to enter Wednesday

a fast-moving Texas case

in which abortion opponents are trying to reverse the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug, mifepristone.

The drug first received FDA approval in 2000, and terms of its use have been relaxed in recent years, including making it available by mail in states that allow access.

The Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of the drug, want the nation’s highest court to overturn limits on the use of mifepristones imposed by lower courts, at least while the lawsuit gets through the courts . They say women who want the drug and providers who provide it will face chaos when limits on the drug go into effect. Depending on what the judges decide, that could mean women needing to take a higher dosage of the drug than the FDA recommends.

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Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents anti-abortion doctors and medical groups in a battle against the drug, defends the rulings by calling on the Supreme Court to allow the restrictions to take effect now.

The abortion legal battle comes less than a year after conservative justices Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion completely.

Even as the abortion landscape changed dramatically in several states, abortion opponents set their sights on drug-induced abortions, which account for more than half of all abortions in the United States.

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Abortion opponents filed suit in November in Amarillo, Texas. The legal challenge quickly reached the Supreme Court after a federal judge issued a ruling on April 7 that would withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in drug-induced abortions.

Less than a week later, a federal appeals court amended the ruling to allow mifepristone to remain available as long as the case continues, but with limits. The appeals court said the drug cannot be shipped or dispensed as a generic and that patients seeking it must make three in-person visits to a doctor, among other things.

The generic version of mifepristone makes up two-thirds of the supply in the United States, the manufacturer, Las Vegas-based GenBioPro Inc., wrote in a lawsuit highlighting the dangers of allowing the restrictions.

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The court also said that the drug can only be approved for now up to seven weeks of pregnancy, although since 2016 the FDA has approved its use up to ten weeks of pregnancy.

To further complicate the situation, a federal judge in Washington has ordered the FDA to maintain access to mifepristone under current rules in 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, which have filed a separate lawsuit.

The Biden administration has said the rulings are inconsistent and create an unsustainable situation for the FDA.

In an order issued last Friday by Judge Samuel Alito, the court suspended restrictions through Wednesday to give the court time to consider the urgent appeal.

If the judges are not inclined to block the ruling for the time being, the Democratic administration and Danco have a fallback argument and ask the court to challenge mifepristone, hear arguments and decide the case before early summer.

The judge rarely takes such a step before at least one court has thoroughly examined the legal issues.

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has already ordered an expedited schedule for hearing the case, with arguments set for May 17.

Mifepristone has been available for use in drug-induced abortions in the United States since FDA approval in 2000. Since then, more than 5 million women have used it, along with another drug, misoprostol, to induce abortions.