Pills are keeping abortion accessible even where it’s banned. A court is considering restrictions

Pills are keeping abortion accessible.

Key points

• News Mark Sherman, Associated Press, Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press May 4, 2026.
• Culture Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press, Kimberlee Kruesi, Associated Press November 3, 2025.
• The Senate Appropriations Committee chairman will be turning in his gavel in January 2028, deciding to step away from the Mississippi Legislature after five terms.
• Wednesday's arguments are part of a case brought by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and Rosalie Markezich.
• The three judges hearing the case are two nominated by Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and one nominated by Republican George W.

Pills are keeping abortion accessible even where it's banned. A court is considering restrictions. By: Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press – September 9, 2026.

FILE – An abortion-rights activist holds a box of mifepristone pills as demonstrators from both anti-abortion and abortion-rights groups rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington, March 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File).

Abortion pills have been the center of legal fights since the top court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Some states, including Mississippi and Texas, have adopted laws with civil or criminal penalties for those who prescribe abortion pills.

Notably, a panel of federal judges is due to hear arguments Wednesday over whether prescribing rules should be tightened for a key drug applied in the most common abortion method in the United States, one of a number of ongoing efforts to restrict abortion access four years after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to decide the matter.

For context, the case before the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is one of three making its way through courts as abortion opponents try to clamp down on providers in states where abortion is legal from sending drugs for medication abortions into states where it is not.

Notably, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration additionally states it's reviewing the rules and could call for a change.

While most voters favor abortion access, it all comes in a midterm election year in which President Donald Trump's anti-abortion supporters are frustrated that a legal workaround to abortion bans remains. It will be up to the Supreme Court to sort out.

At least 3 in 5 U.S. Abortions are now obtained using a two-drug combination. At matter in the case before the appeals court is just one: mifepristone.

Wednesday's arguments are part of a case brought by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and Rosalie Markezich. This person say she was coerced into taking abortion pills. A survey conducted for the Society of Family Planning. It supports legal abortion access, estimates that between 770 and 900 women in Louisiana obtained abortions each month in 2025 by using pills prescribed online or by doctors or nurse practitioners in other states.

In practice, the three judges hearing the case are two nominated by Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and one nominated by Republican George W. Bush.

Three other three-judge panels on the 5th Circuit – one in this case and two in an earlier one – and two district courts have already agreed that rules for prescribing mifepristone are too loose.

But the Supreme Court unanimously rejected an effort to roll back availability in 2024 – not since of the core legal argument, but rather as the court discovered the anti-abortion groups who brought the challenge didn't have legal standing to produce it. The firms that produce mifepristone argue that the states additionally lack legal standing.

Another ruling from the 5th Circuit would not immediately change the landscape since the Supreme Court has additionally blocked changes to the prescribing rules until it sees the case again. The FDA could additionally produce changes without court approval – though such an action would surely be challenged.

Other GOP state authorities are additionally challenging the FDA's rules. The attorneys general of Florida and Texas have filed one lawsuit and the top administration lawyers of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri have another.

Meanwhile, over the past year, federal judges in Hawaii and Virginia discovered that current FDA rules for mifepristone prescribing are too restrictive. Abortion methods have changed since Roe was overturned.

Abortion pills were already widely applied before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case that allowed states to enforce abortion bans.

At present, 13 states ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Another four do so after regarding the first six weeks, before numerous women realize they're pregnant. Most states controlled by Democrats have continued protections for abortion providers – including some intended to offer legal backup for those who prescribe pills to patients in other states via telehealth services. Opponents say that's undermined the bans.

"This case is going to have a huge impact, " remarked Gabriella McIntyre, legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom. It is representing Murrill and the other plaintiff in the case. "The promise of the Dobbs decision was that states would be able to decide on their own how to regulate abortion."

Abortion rights advocates additionally believe there would be major consequences if Louisiana eventually prevails. "They're asking to restore an in-person requirement for every person across the country to access this medication regardless of whether they live in a state with strong legal protection for abortion access, " remarked Amanda Allen, executive director of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine. The political situation is tricky for Trump.

Anti-abortion groups who want to rein in pill access have been Trump's key supporters.

Abortion opponents have called on the FDA to settle the lawsuit with Louisiana and roll back prescribing rules to how they were before telehealth prescriptions were allowed. They additionally want the administration to enforce an 1873 "anti-vice" law to bar mailing the pills.

But on state ballot questions and in public opinion polls, voters have generally backed legal abortion access in most cases.

For context, the administration has been mostly quiet through the legal battles, even though the FDA, whose scientists have repeatedly discovered mifepristone to be safe and effective, is the defendant in the cases.

Notably, the FDA's position could change. Trump's latest nominee to head the agency, Dr. Heidi Overton, the deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, has publicly criticized the agency for relaxing its prescribing rules for the drug – the most recent change coming in 2023.

For context, the FDA notes it's studying mifepristone's safety and reviewing prescribing rules around the drug. One judge ordered the agency to provide a status update by Oct. 7, less than a month before the midterm elections in which control of Congress is in play. It's not clear how detailed an update might be – or when the full study could be completed.

Some states, including Mississippi and Texas, have adopted laws with civil or criminal penalties for those who prescribe abortion pills. Prescribers are preparing to shift which drug they ship.

Even if mifepristone access is curtailed, advocates say it won't stop access to abortion pills.

Meanwhile, the most common regimen for pills in the U.S. Is a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol. Misoprostol, which is commonly applied to treat stomach ulcers and has never been formally approved for abortion, can cause abortions on its own. According to the FDA label on mifepristone, the combination completes medical abortion 97.4% of the time. Some studies have discovered misoprostol's individual effectiveness at around 80% or higher.

Organizations that prescribe abortion pills by telehealth for women who are in states with bans say they would shift to sending misoprostol alone if mifepristone could be dispensed only at medical clinics rather than at pharmacies and through the mail. Regarding the Author(s). Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press. News Frank Corder September 8, 2026.

Hopson won't seek re-election to state Senate or run for Attorney General.

Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman will be turning in his gavel in January 2028, deciding to step away from the Mississippi Legislature after five terms. More From This Author.

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For now, pills are keeping abortion accessible even where it’ s banned. A court is remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.