What to know about mifepristone access after the Supreme Court ruling
Is mifepristone available? Here's what to know about the Supreme Court ruling on access to the abortion medication.
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld access to the abortion pill mifepristone. The ruling was a win for proponents of access to abortion, but laws surrounding access in states vary.
The Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone in 2000 for medication abortion. In 2016, it extended the time frame in which a pregnant woman can use the drug to terminate a pregnancy, from seven weeks’ gestation to 10. In 2021, it moved to permanently allow access to mifepristone prescriptions via telehealth and for the medication to be dispensed by pharmacists and mail-order pharmacies.
However, the right to access mifepristone doesn’t apply in every state.
“Access hasn’t changed from what it was before the decision. The issue is that access is still tough for a number of pregnant persons,” said Dr. Monica Saxena, an emergency medicine physician in Palo Alto, California.
Nearly two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. are medication abortions, according to a report by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion access. Medication abortions consist of taking two pills: mifepristone followed a day or two later by misoprostol.
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