Why the Abortion Pill Is Under Renewed Scrutiny in US: QuickTake

Since the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned its Roe v. Wade decision establishing a nationwide right to an abortion, the fight over the intervention has focused largely on a pill that ends pregnancies: mifepristone. The court in June 2024 preserved the current level of access to medication abortion, the most common way to terminate a pregnancy in the country. Still, many states limit access to mifepristone, efforts continue to curtail it further, and leaders in the US Department of Health and Human Services have indicated that they are interested in a renewed review of the drug’s safety.

Demonstrators outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, in 2024.

Photographer: Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg

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