USA – A Right-Wing Court Just Moved to Choke Off Abortion by Mail

A sweeping decision threatens to unravel one of the most important pathways to care post-Dobbs.

Nina Martin,  Mother Jones
May 1, 2026

A federal appeals court packed with conservatives has handed abortion opponents a major victory against the US Food and Drug Administration, reinstating an in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion medication mifepristone and shutting down telemedicine providers—at least temporarily—from prescribing the abortion pill across the US.

In a 3-0 order issued Friday afternoon, the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals granted Louisiana’s request for an injunction against FDA rule changes from 2023 that have allowed blue-state telehealth providers to send mifepristone to thousands of patients every month in states where abortion is banned. Abortion pills now account for almost two-thirds of abortions nationwide.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/05/a-right-wing-court-just-moved-to-choke-off-abortion-by-mail/


USA – Abortion clinics are closing, even in states that have become key access points

There are about a dozen fewer brick-and-mortar abortion clinics in the US than there were two years ago, according to a new report

By Deidre McPhillips
Feb 18, 2026

Dozens of abortion clinics closed in the US after the Supreme Court Dobbs decision revoked the federal right to an abortion in June 2022 — mostly in states that enacted bans. But the churn has continued, leaving even states with some of the most protective abortion policies to do more with less.

There were 753 brick-and-mortar abortion clinics in the US at the end of 2025, according to a new report by the Guttmacher Institute — ​54 fewer than in ​2020, including a net loss of 12 abortion clinics since March 2024.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/18/health/abortion-clinic-closures-guttmacher


Abortion Access Can’t Depend on Rage Donations

Post-Dobbs abortion access has been propped up by donor outrage and heroic work—but that fragile system is already leaving people behind.

1/21/2026
by David S. Cohen and Carole Joffe

Now, almost three and a half years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the numbers are clear that abortion in the United States has, to the shock of most, continued to rise. But we also have data showing that a small but not trivial number of people are continuing their pregnancies to birth due to abortion bans. To us, what this shows is clear: that overturning Roe has prompted ingenuity, persistence and resistance among providers and patients, but is also leaving many people behind. Ultimately, this is no way to deliver healthcare.

As long-time students of the abortion issue in America, we were not surprised when the Supreme Court, in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case in 2022, overturned Roe, putting the legality of abortion in the hands of individual states.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/21/abortion-roe-v-wade-dobbs-donations-clinic/


Wading without Roe — where do you go?

California becomes a last-resort haven for patients seeking to end pregnancies

By Audrey Tomlin • Bay City News
Oct 11, 2025

In September 2023, Marcela Bermudez bought a one-way ticket, stepped on a plane in Houston, Texas, and flew more than 1,000 miles to Los Angeles, California. She was 25 years old. She was 14 weeks pregnant. She did not want to be. Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision recognizing the federal constitutional right to an abortion, had been overturned 15 months earlier. In Texas, abortion was banned.

Bermudez was one of nearly 7,000 patients who traveled to California from out of state for an abortion that year. She, alongside other patients who crossed state lines for abortion care, shared memories of long, costly travels, overwhelming stigma, and the need for much effort and a little bit of luck — the right friend or a supportive partner — to receive their abortions.

Continued: https://localnewsmatters.org/2025/10/11/wading-without-roe-california-a-last-resort-haven-for-patients-trying-to-end-pregnancies/


Medication abortions drove up number of US procedures after Roe’s repeal, study shows

Abortion pill provision rates were also more than three times higher in states that ban abortion compared with those that do not

Carter Sherman
Mon 11 Aug 2025

An abortion provider shipped almost 120,000 packs of abortion pills to US residents between July 2023 and August 2024 – nearly 100,000 of whom lived in states that outlaw the procedure or have laws on the books that ban the mailing of abortion pills, according to a new study published in the prestigious medical journal Jama on Monday.

To the shock of experts, the number of abortions performed in the US rose in the three years since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and paved the way for more than a dozen states to ban virtually all abortions. Much of that rise has been driven by the use of abortion pills, or medication abortion, and providers’ ability to supply the pills through telehealth.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/11/medication-abortions-performed-study


USA- Tens of thousands of women traveled for abortion care again last year as state policies continue to shift

By Deidre McPhillips and Annette Choi, CNN
Tue June 24, 2025

For 2½ hours in February 2024, Gracie Ladd and her husband sat in heavy silence as they drove from their home in southern Wisconsin to Chicago. Their spirits were as cold and gray as the Midwestern winter passing by the car windows; Ladd was 20 weeks pregnant and had recently learned that a severe fetal condition made the developing baby “incompatible with life.” Staying pregnant could put her own health at risk, too.

But abortion wasn’t an option in Wisconsin, where a 175-year-old state law had effectively banned the procedure at the time. That law has since been overturned, but Ladd, her family and her doctors were stuck in a legal gray area that raised fear and worry. And instead of being surrounded by familiar comforts at one of the most distressing points of her life, Ladd had to take time off from work, coordinate child care for her 2-year-old son and travel more than 100 miles from home to a health care provider she had never met.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/health/abortion-state-travel-2024-dg


Volunteers rush to send abortion pills to US women in need as ‘war between the states’ looms

Massachusetts abortion project pushes for access across country as controversial shield laws are put to legal test
Carter Sherman
Sat 26 Apr 2025
Each of the volunteers – five women and one man – have a unique role in the assembly line. One volunteer drops slim, orange boxes of mifepristone, the first drug typically used in a medication abortion, into the envelopes, while another volunteer adds green-capped bottles of the second drug, misoprostol. A few volunteers add brochures on topics such as how to use abortion pills or what to do if a woman suspects she has an ectopic pregnancy. Finally, one volunteer drops small purple cards into each envelope. They all bear the same handwritten message: “We wish you the best.” The cards are signed with a swooping heart and a nondescript name: “the Map”, or the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/26/abortion-clinic-pills-shield-laws


USA -With Risks to Patients and Providers Growing, States Should Revisit Abortion Reporting Requirements

Kelly Baden, Joerg Dreweke, Guttmacher Institute
March 2025

The increasingly hostile political and legal climate for abortion rights and access in the United States requires reconsideration of longstanding systems of state-mandated abortion reporting. Data on abortion incidence and trends are critical for understanding changes in the abortion access landscape and, in turn, can be vital in shaping public policies to improve reproductive health access and outcomes. However, the current climate has escalated the risk of mandated data collection being used to stigmatize, harass, or even prosecute abortion patients and providers—including in situations where abortion care is provided and obtained legally.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/2025/03/risks-patients-and-providers-growing-states-should-revisit-abortion-reporting-requirements


Number of US abortions fell by only 2% after wave of state bans, CDC report reveals

First major report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tallies abortion provision in the post-Roe US

Carter Sherman
Wed 27 Nov 2024

Despite the wave of state abortion bans that took effect after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in June 2022, the number of abortions performed in the US fell by only 2% that year, according to the first major report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to tally abortion provision in the post-Roe United States.

The findings in the report, released Wednesday, echo other research that has uncovered that US abortion rates have surprisingly risen in the years since Roe’s demise. In 2023, the US saw more than 1m abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortions and restrictions on the procedure – the highest number recorded in more than a decade.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/27/post-roe-abortion-rate


USA – Women in states with bans are getting abortions at similar rates as under Roe, report says

A new report finds that women living in states with abortion bans obtained the procedure in the second half of 2023 at about the same rate as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press
October 22, 2024

Women living in states with abortion bans obtained the procedure in the second half of 2023 at about the same rate as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a report released Tuesday.

Women did so by traveling out of state or by having prescription abortion pills mailed to them, according to the #WeCount report from the Society of Family Planning, which advocates for abortion access. They increasingly used telehealth, the report found, as medical providers in states with laws intended to protection them from prosecution in other states used online appointments to prescribe abortion pills.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/women-states-bans-abortions-similar-rates-roe-report-115020954