USA – Abortion Access Is in Chaos. Blame the Supreme Court.

The court’s conservatives promised that repealing Roe would bring stability. It has done the opposite.

By Jill Filipovic
May 05, 2026

… Overturning Roe didn’t resolve a contentious national argument and bring about an era of considered debate followed by a democratic process to set abortion laws that reflect public opinion; it just made abortion rights far more fragile, including in the liberal states that seek to protect them. Instead of turning the issue back to the states, abortion opponents are now focused on ending abortion access nationwide. Instead of providing clarity, the courts have created chaos.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/05/supreme-court-abortion-pill-access.html

05.05.2026

Commentary

abortion pills

Jill Filipovic

misoprostol-only abortions

overturning Roe v. Wade

shield laws

telemedicine abortion

Abortion pill mifepristone: An explainer and research roundup about its history, safety and future

Amid pending court cases and ballot initiatives, journalistic coverage of medication abortion has never been more crucial. This piece aims to help inform the narrative with scientific evidence.

by Naseem S. Miller
November 1, 2023

Access to mifepristone, a medication that’s used for the safe termination of early pregnancy, hangs in the balance while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take up a case that could determine the legal future of the abortion medication.

In August, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mifepristone should not be prescribed past the seventh week of pregnancy, prescribed via telemedicine, or shipped to patients through the mail. In September, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to consider a challenge to that ruling.

Continued: https://journalistsresource.org/health/mifepristone-research-roundup/

The Disastrous Potential of the Texas Abortion-Pill Ruling

A nationwide ban on mifepristone would further erode doctors’ ability to provide—or learn how to provide—lifesaving care.

By Isaac Chotiner
April 11, 2023

Last week, two federal judges issued conflicting rulings on the abortion drug mifepristone, setting the stage for a clash that is likely to end up in the Supreme Court. First, a judge in Texas ruled that mifepristone would be banned nationwide in seven days. Then, a judge in Washington ordered the F.D.A. not to make any changes to the availability of the drug, which the agency approved for use more than two decades ago and which has an extensive safety record. While the legal process unfolds, abortion providers and health professionals are caught in limbo, exacerbating the challenges they have faced since last year’s Dobbs decision.

I recently spoke by phone with Jody Steinauer, the director of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco, to better understand how abortion care changed after Dobbs and what a ban on mifepristone would mean for women’s health care. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-disastrous-potential-of-the-texas-abortion-pill-ruling

11.04.2023

Interviews/Podcasts

Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health

Jody Steinauer

mifepristone

miscarriage management

misoprostol-only abortions

USA – The Plaintiffs Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill Admitted They Have No Case

BY DAVID S. COHEN, GREER DONLEY, AND RACHEL REBOUCHE
MARCH 21, 2023

There are so many problems with the federal case in Texas challenging the approval of mifepristone, the first of two drugs given as part of a medication abortion. On the procedural side of things, just to name a few, the statute of limitations has long run out, the plaintiffs have not exhausted their administrative remedies, they haven’t identified a provision of law that has been violated, and their claimed injury makes no sense. On substance, again just to name a few, mifepristone is one of the safest drugs on the market, pregnancy is a medical condition for which the FDA can approve drugs, and the act on which the case relies has been basically a dead letter for a century. This case really is frivolous and should garner no real attention.

But, of course, we’re talking about this case repeatedly because of the real fear that the plaintiffs successfully hand-picked one of the few federal judges in the country who will ignore all this and rule in their favor. So, there is no such thing as giving this case too much scrutiny. And in that vein, it’s worth explaining how the release of the transcript from last Wednesday’s argument reveals yet another flaw with the case—lack of redressability—that should end the case immediately.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/03/abortion-pill-mifepristone-misoprostol-ban-fail.html

The right is stealthily working to remove Americans’ access to abortion medication

A federal judge is poised to restrict mifepristone – even though the drug has been safely and effectively used in the US for more than 20 years

Moira Donegan
Thu 16 Mar 2023

This week a Republican-appointed federal judge weighed whether to grant an injunction that could remove mifepristone, the drug used in most American abortions, from the market nationwide. And the hearing almost happened in secret.

US district court judge Matthew Kacsmaryk had initially planned to keep Wednesday’s hearing in the case – in which a group of rightwing anti-abortion groups are suing the FDA to reverse its 20-year-old approval of mifepristone – quiet. In a conference call with lawyers for the anti-choice groups and the Department of Justice, Kacsmaryk asked attorneys not to disclose the existence of the hearing (“This is not a gag order,” he said repeatedly), and said that the event would only be made public late on Tuesday to minimize popular awareness. “It may even be after business hours.” The judge’s courtroom in Amarillo, Texas, is hours away from any major city. It was only because of a press leak that the hearing was known to the public at all.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/16/the-right-is-stealthily-working-to-remove-americans-access-to-abortion-medication

16.03.2023

Opinion

Alliance Defending Freedom

misoprostol-only abortions

Moira Donegan

self-managed abortion

Southern Poverty Law Center

USA – Why an ulcer drug could be the last option for many abortion patients

February 24, 2023
Sarah McCammon
3-Minute Listen with Transcript

A federal judge in Texas could rule as soon as today on whether to cut off access to a key medication abortion protocol, giving lawyers until day's end to submit additional arguments. Fearing another major blow to abortion access, some providers are already considering alternatives.

At the Trust Women clinic in Wichita, Kansas, it's already been crisis mode for months. And now clinic Director Ashley Brink says the staff is bracing for another — maybe even bigger — wave of uncertainty.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/24/1159075709/abortion-drug-mifepristone-misoprotol-texas-case

USA – The Underground Abortion Pill Network Is Booming

At least 20,000 abortion pills are estimated to have been shipped across the U.S. in the six months since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

By Carter Sherman
February 23, 2023

At least 20,000 packets of abortion pills were shipped to people in the United States in the six months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, two sources with knowledge of the situation told VICE News.

The suppliers of these estimated 20,000 packets are neither abortion clinics nor abortion telehealth organizations, but instead operate outside of the U.S. legal health care system. The demand for their pills, as well as their success at shipping them out undetected, are evidence of the thriving underground abortion network that has sprung up since Roe’s demise devastated access to abortion clinics.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k85wg/underground-abortion-pill-network

USA – How Abortion Providers Are Planning for a Ruling That Could Force Mifepristone Off the Market

2/21/2023
by PHOEBE KOLBERT, Ms. Magazine

The ruling in a lawsuit out of Texas seeking to reverse FDA approval of mifepristone is expected as soon as this week. If Trump-appointed District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk rules in favor of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the far-right group bringing suit, mifepristone would be forced off the market and clinics’ capacities could significantly fall.

The Trust Women clinic in Wichita, Kansas—where abortion is currently legal up to 21 weeks—already gets more than 16,000 calls a day and is booking out weeks ahead. If the clinic is forced to stop providing medication abortions, its capacity will be greatly reduced. Aspiration abortions must be performed in person, with specialized equipment, and appointments can be more than three hours long—three times that of medication abortion appointments. Ashley Brink, the clinic director of Trust Women, said the clinic would only be able to serve a fraction of their current patient load if they could only provide aspiration abortions.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/02/21/texas-mifepristone-lawsuit-criminalize-abortion/

A Trump Judge Could Ban Abortion Pills In the US Within Days

One of the most common and safe abortion drugscould be banned nationwide this week—regardless of a state’s abortion restrictions.

By Carter Sherman
February 21, 2023

One of the most common and safe abortion drugs could be banned nationwide as soon as Friday, thanks to a lawsuit that could impact every state in the country—regardless of that state’s abortion restrictions.

Abortion rights supporters and foes alike are bracing for a ruling in a lawsuit, filed late last year, that accused the Food and Drug Administration of overstepping its authority when it approved the use of the drug mifepristone for abortions. Although the lawsuit was initially regarded as something of a longshot legal oddity among abortion rights activists, that attitude quickly changed once people realized that the suit was sure to be overseen by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump and is widely known for his conservative views on abortion.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjkgkd/us-abortion-pill-ban-lawsuit

‘It’s a war’: the doctor who wants Americans to get abortion pills before it’s too late

Rebecca Gomperts has found innovative ways to circumvent abortion restrictions worldwide – and a US ruling could make her work even more urgent

Poppy Noor

Mon 20 Feb 2023

In the first month of the coronavirus pandemic, when planes from India temporarily stopped flying, Rebecca Gomperts faced a problem. A Dutch physician and abortion specialist, she had spent the two years prior shipping the pills commonly used to end a pregnancy – mifepristone and misoprostol – to people in countries where they couldn’t access them. Now, mifepristone wasn’t available to her any more.

Gomperts is a doctor who has gone to extraordinary lengths to circumvent abortion restrictions around the world, including parking her boat in international waters outside of countries like Poland to administer abortions. So she pivoted. She trialled misoprostol-only abortions, as that drug was more easily available outside India. The results weren’t ideal, but they were much better than nothing.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/20/abortion-pills-us-ruling-rebecca-gomperts-interview

20.02.2023