Democratic Governors Brace for Supreme Court Abortion Pill Ruling

A Supreme Court battle over medication abortion threatens to impede reproductive rights services in states led by Democrats, running up against physician shortages and an influx of patients from states where abortion is restricted.

Govs. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.), and 20 others are urging the Supreme Court to side with the Food and Drug Administration in a challenge to the agency’s safety decisions on mifepristone. The justices are weighing whether to affirm a lower court in blocking the drug from being mailed and prescribed by non-physicians.

Invalidating the FDA’s decisions “would have an enormously disruptive impact on state ...