The next Supreme Court abortion rights battle is coming for the most common form of care
After the US Supreme Court revoked a constitutional right to abortion care, tens of thousands of women who are not pregnant have ordered abortion drugs in the event they could need them if, or when, that access is taken away from them.
A wave of state-level anti-abortion laws that followed the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to reverse the decades-long precedent established by Roe v Wade appeared to fuel an increase of “advance provision” prescriptions of medication abortion drugs across the country.
But another looming Supreme Court decision on abortion rights threatens the availability of a widely used abortion drug that was approved by the federal government more than 20 years ago – and is used in more than half of all abortions nationwide.
A decision to revoke federal approval of the drug mifepristone, less than two years after the court’s far-reaching decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, could further upend abortion access for millions of Americans, and potentially force patients to seek surgical care in a country where the procedure is in more than a dozen states.
