While the fate of mifepristone, also known as the abortion pill, plays out in U.S. courts, health care providers have another drug they can continue to use to offer medication abortion.
Misoprostol is primarily an ulcer medication, but it’s used in conjunction with mifepristone in 98% of all reported medication abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that backs reproductive rights. The combination is “the gold standard for medication abortion in the U.S. and elsewhere,” said Alice Mark, interim medical advisor for the National Abortion Federation.
But misoprostol can also be used on its own to end a pregnancy, and multiple health-care providers have said they’d prescribe it on its own if mifepristone disappears from the market.
