Access to Abortion Pills is Sliding Out of Reach in Dozens of States

The Biden administration’s efforts to loosen access to medication abortion pills are running into a headwall of opposition in dozens of states, threatening to put the drugs out of reach for many patients. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this month said it will allow U.S. retail pharmacies to offer abortion pills directly to patients with a prescription in states where abortion is legal, a major step forward in easing access that had been demanded by reproductive rights activists.

Medication abortion has been available in the United States since 2000, when the FDA approved the use of mifepristone for early nonsurgical abortion. It has become an increasingly common method for ending pregnancies, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and accounts for more than half of all abortions in the country. 

But many states with strict abortion bans also limit the availability of mifepristone, either through restrictions on who can prescribe and dispense the pill or outright bans.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights group that tracks state restrictions,18 states require the clinician providing a medication abortion to be physically present when the medication is administered, essentially prohibiting the use of telemedicine to prescribe medication for abortion.

Texas prohibits the use of medication abortion starting at seven weeks of pregnancy, while Indiana bans its use at 10 weeks. The FDA has approved mifepristone for use up to 10 weeks.

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