US abortion providers relieved but wary as Supreme Court preserves pill access

“What the courts will see is a drug that does not cure a disease or alleviate the symptoms of a disease,” said National Right to Life president Carol Tobias. “It was developed to take the life of an unborn child and always has the potential to harm the mother.”

California, Massachusetts, and Washington have stockpiled abortion medicines in anticipation of prospective limitations. Some Planned Parenthood locations reported stockpiling mifepristone for as least a year.

Even if FDA approval is withdrawn, California and other liberal states will defend pharmacists who dispense mifepristone if doctors prescribe it.

U.S. pharmaceutical abortions use mifepristone and misoprostol.

Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates spokesperson Nicole Erwin said there was no imminent need to transition to a misoprostol-only regimen.

“The court ruled that access to mifepristone should remain unchanged while the case moves through lower courts, which means there is no need to move away from the current two-pill regimen,” she said.

However, reproductive rights advocates were concerned about access concerns when the case returned to the lower courts that had restricted it.

“We’re still planning to stockpile both mifepristone and misoprostol just in case,” said complex pregnancy specialist Josie Urbina of the University of California, San Francisco Center for Pregnancy Options.