Nearly two years after a momentous ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court helped restrict abortion access, the top court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in a case involving access to the abortion medication mifepristone. Tens of thousands currently get the pills by mail in order to terminate a pregnancy.A container holding boxes of mifepristone, the first medication in a medical abortion, are prepared for patients at Alamo Women's Clinic in Carbondale, Ill., on April 20, 2023.
The development made the U.S. an outlier among Western and advanced nations. For countries that have changed abortion laws so far this century, about 90 per cent made amendments that improved access rather than restricting it further,A ruling for the plaintiffs could restrict recent Food and Drug Administration changes that have loosened requirements on receiving one of two pills used in this type of abortion.
The reduced incidence of surgical abortions has likely been enabled by a couple of FDA changes. In 2016, mifespristone was permitted for use from 10 weeks of gestation, up from previous guidance of seven weeks. In 2021, the FDA relaxed in-person requirements, allowing the pills to be sent through the mail, including by health-care providers who are not physicians.
The plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case are the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a group of medical associations and four doctors who oppose abortion on religious and moral grounds. They are alleging the FDA overlooked serious safety problems when it made mifepristone easier to obtain. But some legal experts say they will have to show a real risk to women has occurred, not just a hypothetical one.
Normal side effects may include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Bleeding is normal; very heavy bleeding is uncommon and requires medical attention.