The ruling means that unless the Supreme Court intervenes by Friday, mifepristone will no longer be approved for use after the seventh week and cannot be dispensed by mail.

Minutes after a Texas federal judge blocked the decades-old approval of mifepristone on Friday, a federal judge in Washington reached the opposite conclusion: The abortion pill should remain available.

The administration's student loan program, which has already approved 16 million applications since launching in October, was dealt another legal blow, likely sending a second case to the Supreme Court.