The Real Reason Why Some Abortion Pill Patients Go to the ER

Today the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in a consequential case that threatens to curb access to medication abortion across the country. A central issue in the case is the safety of the drug mifepristone, the first in a two-pill regimen used to induce an abortion. The drug blocks a hormone […]

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The Real Reason Some Abortion Pill Patients Go to the ER

Today the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in a consequential case that threatens to curb access to medication abortion across the country. A central issue in the case is the safety of the drug mifepristone, the first in a two-pill regimen used to induce an abortion. The drug blocks a hormone […]

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A Study at the Center of the Abortion Pill Battle Was Just Retracted

Scientific publisher Sage Journals has retracted three papers on abortion—including a controversial 2021 study on mifepristone, the medication at the center of a US legal battle. The 2021 study found that mifepristone, one of two pills used in a medication abortion, significantly increased the risk of women going to the emergency room following an abortion. […]

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A Study at the Center of the Abortion Pill Battle Was Just Retracted

Scientific publisher Sage Journals has retracted three papers on abortion—including a controversial 2021 study on mifepristone, the medication at the center of a US legal battle. The 2021 study found that mifepristone, one of two pills used in a medication abortion, significantly increased the risk of women going to the emergency room following an abortion. […]

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The US Supreme Court Will Decide the Fate of Medication Abortion

The US Supreme Court has decided to hear a case challenging access to abortion pills in the United States, including in states where abortion is legal. Whatever the court decides, this will be the most consequential case for access to reproductive health care since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Pills are now […]

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The Most Popular Digital Abortion Clinics, Ranked by Data Privacy

Low Risk: Users can edit or delete data, Some Risk: Users can edit data, High Risk: Users cannot edit or delete data Third-Party Sharing (Ads and Marketing) Research scientist and privacy expert Razieh Nokhbeh Zaeem calls personally identifiable information the “currency of the internet” because of the myriad ways individualized data is collected, bought, and […]

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The Pain and Promise of Europe’s Abortion Laws

According to WHO guidelines, if a doctor conscientiously objects to providing an abortion, then that country’s health system must refer a patient to an alternative health care provider. But mandatory referrals are a poor fix and conscientiously objecting health care professionals are also often reluctant to reliably refer patients to someone who will provide necessary […]

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Abortion Pill Use Is Surging Post-Dobbs. Now It’s Under Threat

The Texas ruling also conflicted with one made the same day by a judge in Washington state, directing US authorities to preserve mifepristone access in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Meanwhile, new suits have been filed in an effort to maintain mifepristone access, including a pair of unrelated suits challenging state restrictions in […]

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States With Abortion Bans Are Losing a Generation of Ob-Gyns

Shira Fishbach, a newly graduated physician, was sitting in an orientation session for her first year of medical residency when her phone started blowing up. It was June 24, 2022, and the US Supreme Court had just handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, nullifying the national right to abortion and […]

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The Supreme Court Preserves Abortion Pill Access—Temporarily

The US Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court’s order that would have banned the abortion pill mifepristone. The action means that the drug will remain available and legal under status quo regulations until the case works its way through the appeals process, which could take months. The court’s ultimate ruling could be […]

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The Supreme Court Has Delayed Its Abortion Pill Decision

The legal saga over the abortion pill mifepristone isn’t over yet. On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court extended its own deadline to decide on the fate of the drug until Friday by just before midnight Eastern Time.  The pill will remain on the market for at least the next few days. The Supreme Court’s decision on […]

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The US Supreme Court Restores Access to Abortion Pills—for Now

US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday stepped in to temporarily block lower courts’ decisions to impose restrictions on mifepristone, a pill used for medication abortion. The measure is essentially a pause on a Texas judge’s ruling last week to void the drug’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration. It also overrides the Fifth Circuit […]

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Abortion Pill-by-Mail Providers Aren’t Going Anywhere

After conflicting legal rulings triggered widespread uncertainty about the future of abortion pill access in the United States, both US-based telehealth providers and overseas pill-by-mail sellers want to make one thing clear: They’re here to stay. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, virtual abortion clinics have taken a more prominent role in reproductive healthcare. Before […]

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The Abortion Pill Legal Standoff Endangers Access to All Drugs

In a statement, Jim Stansel, executive vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, called the FDA the “gold standard for determining whether a medicine is safe and effective” and said the group has “serious concerns with any court substituting its opinion for the FDA’s expert approval decision-making.”  Marcus Schabacker, president […]

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Abortion Pills May Force States and the FDA Into a Standoff

For medication abortions, sorting out federal preemption will require fresh lawsuits, which are likely to be brought in states already hostile to abortion, and—depending on their outcome—might rise to a Supreme Court that has already negated abortion rights. Legal experts worry that this could lead to findings with wider implications for federalism as a whole. […]

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How Abortion Clinics Are Racing to Prepare for a Post-Roe America

Further limitations may be on the horizon. Republicans who support restricting abortion outnumber Democrats in the state legislature, and while North Carolina’s governor, a Democrat, has thus far vetoed bills to further restrict access, a Republican governor, or future attempts to redraw district boundaries, may give Republicans the edge to reach a veto-proof majority. California […]

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The Story of Abortion Pills and How They Work

The French health minister was furious. In September 1988, Claude Évin’s department had approved an abortion pill called RU-486 for sale. A world first. But now just four weeks later, under pressure from anti-abortion groups, the board of the pharmaceutical firm that made the pill—Roussel Uclaf—had voted 16 to 4 to withdraw it from the […]

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The Post-Roe Battleground for Abortion Pills Will Be Your Mailbox

Historically, a state’s legal code has been assumed to stop at its borders. And for the most part, states have not prosecuted residents who leave to do something that is legal at their destination but illegal at home. “Before it became legalized in most places, people would travel to Las Vegas or Atlantic City to […]

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A Guide to Abortion Resources in a Post-Roe America

In a perfect world, abortion access would be easy. The minute you realized you needed an abortion, you’d be able to grab some abortion pills from the drugstore, or make an appointment with your regular gynecologist for a quick and easy vacuum aspiration. But we don’t live in a perfect world. In modern-day America, abortion […]

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The Ramifications of Roe’s Fall Won’t Stop at Abortion Bans

Within minutes of the leaking of the draft opinion from the US Supreme Court calling for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Elizabeth Constance, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, was inundated with messages on social media from concerned patients. What does this mean for the embryos I […]

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