Why the Abortion Pill Mifepristone Is Under Renewed Scrutiny in the US

Since the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned its Roe v. Wade decision establishing a nationwide right to an abortion, the fight over the intervention has focused largely on a pill that ends pregnancies: mifepristone. The court in June 2024 preserved the current level of access to medication abortion, the most common way to terminate a pregnancy in the country. Still, many states limit access to mifepristone, efforts continue to curtail it further, and leaders in the US Department of Health and Human Services have indicated that they are interested in a renewed review of the drug’s safety.

Mifepristone is an oral drug used to terminate a pregnancy. It works by blocking progesterone, a hormone that’s necessary for a pregnancy to continue. Doctors prescribe it with misoprostol, a drug used to treat stomach ulcers that can also induce contractions. When taken together, the two pills have been found to effectively end pregnancies with no further intervention about 98% of the time. France was the first Western country to approve mifepristone to facilitate abortion, in 1988. Since then, more than 90 countries have followed. The US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug in 2000.