{"id":629453,"date":"2026-05-07T19:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/629453\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T19:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:13:09","slug":"patients-in-states-with-abortion-bans-might-lose-remote-access-to-mifepristone-1a-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/629453\/","title":{"rendered":"Patients In States With Abortion Bans Might Lose Remote Access To Mifepristone : 1A : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n A view of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

hide caption\n <\/p>\n

toggle caption<\/p>\n

SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

One drug is at the center of the current legal battle over abortion: mifepristone.<\/p>\n

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022,<\/a> mifepristone has become the dominant method of abortion<\/a> in the United States, filling the gap left by clinic closures in states with abortion bans. And the number of abortions has actually risen nationally as a result.<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a problem for abortion access opponents. Now, they\u2019re taking aim at one of the main ways it\u2019s prescribed \u2013 via telehealth. And last week, they scored their first big win.<\/a><\/p>\n

A federal appeals court blocked remote prescription of mifepristone. Louisiana sued the FDA,<\/a> arguing that mail access undermines the state\u2019s near-total ban on abortion. But two days later,<\/a> the drug\u2019s manufacturers<\/a> went to the Supreme Court and it temporarily restored telehealth access while it considers the case.<\/a> But that stay is set to expire soon.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s next in this legal battle? And what does it mean for patients and reproductive health providers?<\/p>\n

Find more of our programs online<\/a>. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org\/the1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A view of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC. SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-629453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}