The Supreme Court hears its first abortion case since ending Roe

Nearly two-thirds FDAFDAFDAFDAof the Americans who choose to end their pregnancies now do so using pills. has been an increasingly popular option since 2000, when the Food and Drug Administration () first approved mifepristone as part of a two-drug regimen with misoprostol. More recently, the widened the window during which the medicine may be used and eased dispensing requirements. But on March 26th the Supreme Court will consider whether these loosened regulations should be tightened back up. began as an assault on the ’s original approval of mifepristone. In April 2023 the district-court judge in Texas who heard the case invalidated the authorisation from 2000 and each of the subsequent liberalisations. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals kept mifepristone on the shelves when it pared back this extraordinary ruling last August. But the appeals court agreed that the 2016 and 2021 changes—allowing the drug to be used through ten weeks of pregnancy (up from seven) and to be sent to women by post with a remote prescription—had to go.