Network for Public Health Law Joins Supreme Court Amicus Brief in Defense of Telehealth Access
Network for Public Health Law Joins Supreme Court Amicus Brief in Defense of Telehealth Access
The Network for Public Health Law (Network) has joined 174 professors, health organizations, and health care providers in an amicus brief filed before the United States Supreme Court in Danco Laboratories, LLC v. Louisiana and GenBioPro, Inc. v. Louisiana, urging the Court to protect telehealth access for patients across the country.
At issue is a Fifth Circuit ruling that reimposed in-person dispensing requirements for the abortion medication mifepristone. While the brief focuses on the broad benefits of telehealth, it also speaks directly to reproductive health, noting that access to telehealth for reproductive health care is no different than other areas of medicine. In addition to explaining the extensive benefits of telehealth, the brief also argues that imposing medically unnecessary barriers would undermine telehealth services more broadly and harm patients who depend on them.
“What the Fifth Circuit has done is put care out of reach for patients who were already struggling to access it,” said Kathi Hoke, Director of the Eastern Region, Network for Public Health Law. “The Supreme Court has both the authority and the responsibility to correct that.”
The Network has been closely tracking the legal threats to reproductive health access, and has released a new article, Mifepristone Litigation Updates and the Status of Federal Regulation of Abortion Medication, which examines the legal landscape now threatening access to medication abortion and the patients most likely to be harmed. Medication abortion accounted for 63% of abortions performed in states without bans in 2023, and in the second quarter of 2025, roughly 27% of all U.S. medication abortions were accessed via telehealth. As the article states, restrictions on that access harm anyone who may become pregnant and fall hardest on patients who already face significant barriers to care.
The Network joins a wide array of advocates in urging the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit’s stay pending appeal.
About the Network for Public Health Law
The Network works with local, Tribal, state, and federal public health policy makers, officials, attorneys, and practitioners, as well as community organizations, advocates, and other partners in community health across the country to help build their capacity to improve health and advance health equity through the use of law and policy. We provide evidence-based solutions and best practices through technical assistance, as well as information, resources, consultation, and training. Learn more at networkforphl.org.
The Network is supported by grants from some of the nation’s leading health philanthropies, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the de Beaumont Foundation, and Arnold Ventures. The Network also receives project funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the CDC Foundation.
For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
CONTACT: Nina Belforte – Deputy Director of Strategic Communications, Network for Public Health Law