Washington ( CNN ) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a pending appeal from Oklahoma officials who were defending a state law limiting abortions performed with medicine instead of surgery . The law would have regulated the ability of doctors to prescribe a medication regime -- using RU-486 pills -- to terminate early pregnancies , and make it a crime to deviate from the federal government-approved dosage and time limits on the drugs . But many physicians -- backed by abortion rights supporters -- say they routinely induce medical abortions through a combination of drugs they determine is simpler , safer , and less expensive than the current federal protocols on the use of abortion drugs . The high court months ago had tentatively added this case to its docket , but put things on hold while it sought detailed answers from Oklahoma Supreme Court . Those state justices again affirmed the law 's unconstitutionality , and now the nation 's highest court tossed out Oklahoma 's appeal `` as improvidently granted . '' This was the first of several restrictive abortion laws nationwide to get review by the U.S. justices . A federal appeals court last week allowed a similar law from Texas to go into effect . But a coalition of abortion rights groups said Monday they would ask the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency injunction to block that law 's enforcement . The current case is Cline v. Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice ( 12-1094 ) . What 's on the Supreme Court docket .
The Supreme Court opts not to review a ruling striking down an Alabama abortion law . The law would have regulated the ability of doctors to prescribe medicine to abort a pregnancy . The high court reverses an earlier decision to consider the appeal .