America’s Supreme Court should reject the challenge to abortion drugs

AMERICAN WOMENFDAFDA are thought to have more abortions today than they did before the Supreme Court overturned in 2022. The main reason is probably . Safe and effective, cheap and convenient, and small enough to fit into an envelope, they enable many women to have an abortion without leaving home. The pills account for nearly two-thirds of terminations in America, up from almost a quarter in 2011, partly because the Food and Drug Administration () has loosened rules around their use and distribution. No wonder pro-lifers want the Supreme Court to clamp down on them. Medically and legally, that would be an error.The court will hear the case on March 26th—its first on abortion since it ignited a nationwide battle over reproductive rights by scrapping . The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a conservative group, wants greater restrictions around mifepristone, a drug typically used in combination with another, misoprostol, to induce abortions. Arguing that the ’s rulings have been “arbitrary” and “capricious”, it wants to restore a strict seven-week limit on use of mifepristone, as well as a requirement that only doctors can prescribe and provide it—and that this must be in person.