On June 13, 2024, in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the US Supreme Court unanimously reversed a lower court decision suspending the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a medication used to end pregnancies in the first trimester and treat early miscarriages. The ruling allows healthcare providers to continue distributing the medication without added restrictions.
As of June 2024, 14 states have near-total bans on mifepristone. The other 36 states and Washington, DC, provide some form of legal access to the abortion medication.
Mifepristone is typically used to induce a medical abortion during early pregnancy (70 days or less since the first day of a patient’s last menstrual period). It’s widely available in 22 states and Washington, DC, where it can be prescribed by a non-physician health care provider like a medical assistant or nurse practitioner.
Another 14 states allow it but regulate it more heavily, making it available only when prescribed by a doctor or after mandated counseling or ultrasounds, along with other state-mandated abortion restrictions.[1]
All states that allow Mifepristone prescriptions must meet FDA requirements ensuring that the drug must be prescribed by a health care provider that meets certain qualifications and is certified under the Mifepristone Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) Program.
In the 46 states[2] that reported abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2021, 80.9% of reported abortions were early medical abortions—meaning the medical abortion occurred at a gestational age[3] of nine weeks or earlier.
To learn more about health care statistics in the US, read up on where abortion is legal. Get the data directly in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.
[1] These additional restrictions may include requirements such as having a physician provide the medication, mandating that a clinician prescribe it, prohibiting the use of telemedicine for distribution, necessitating in-person counseling prior to receiving a prescription, or requiring an ultrasound. according to the CDC.
[2] Along with data from New York City and Washington, DC.
[3] Gestational age is a measurement of how far along a pregnancy is, according to the CDC.
