Justice Department's warning to states over abortion pill bans points to legal fight ahead

Washington — With the Justice Department's recent warning to states not to ban a federally approved drug that induces an abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration signaled that medication abortion may be the next front in the fight to preserve abortion rights in states that are curtailing access.

Twenty-two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug mifepristone — taken together with a second medicine — for use in terminating a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation. Last December, the agency lifted a requirement that the medication be dispensed in-person, allowing it to be prescribed by a provider through a telemedicine appointment and sent to the patient by mail.

But the high court's ruling ending the constitutional right to an abortion late last month has put the issue of abortion access in the hands of statewide elected officials and cleared the way for Republican-led legislatures to enact a flurry of new limits, including bans on all forms of abortion and restrictions on medication abortion.