ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Today, the rules for using an abortion pill in the United States are exactly the same as they were the day before.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
That lack of a change is news because the Supreme Court turned aside a request to change them. The court unanimously rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone. Some doctors had sued the Food and Drug Administration, saying its approval of the drug was improper, but because the doctors opposed the drug and didn't actually prescribe it, the court said they did not have the standing to sue. In other words, they had no direct stake in the case.
SCHMITZ: NPR's Elissa Nadworny covers reproductive rights and joins us now. Good morning, Elissa.
ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: Good morning.
SCHMITZ: So you've been talking to medical providers who actually do provide mifepristone. What are they telling you?
NADWORNY: That's right. I talked with many doctors and nurses. Dr. Kristyn Brandi is an OB-GYN in New Jersey. And when the decision came down, she and her staff were actually in a meeting where they were making a plan for if access to mifepristone was changed.
KRISTYN BRANDI: We were all in shock and just so thrilled and relieved that this was not something that we had to worry about anymore because it's something that's kind of been looming in the background for weeks now.
NADWORNY: Others were a bit more cautious in their optimism. Here is Dr. Louise King, director of reproductive ethics at the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics.
LOUISE KING: It's a pause in panic (laughter).
NADWORNY: A pause in panic, one that allows providers to keep prescribing mifepristone during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and via telehealth appointments.
SCHMITZ: A pause in panic. You know, by rejecting the case on standing, the court basically sidestepped the original question about FDA approval. So what does abortion access look like now?
NADWORNY: Well, it's a patchwork. Fourteen states have a near-total ban on abortion. Many more have restrictions after the first trimester. But the landscape since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade has changed a lot, in big part because of expanded access to telehealth, which now makes up 1 in 5 abortions in the U.S. And several states have enacted shield laws which allow providers to send abortion medication by mail to states with bans and restrictions. Lauren Jacobson is a nurse practitioner in Massachusetts who does this.
LAUREN JACOBSON: We continue business as usual. The Supreme Court has not made it more difficult than it already is for people to get access to abortion pills.
NADWORNY: Jacobson works for Aid Access, one of the largest abortion-by-mail organizations that sends pills to all 50 states. And yesterday, she wrote about 30 prescriptions for mifepristone.
SCHMITZ: So, Elissa, what is next for anti-abortion groups now that this challenge has failed?
NADWORNY: Well, you first look for clues in the opinion. And in Brett Kavanaugh's opinion, he essentially writes, go through Congress, not the courts, if you want to challenge regulations. However, the lawyers who brought the case are confident they can still continue in the courts, perhaps with state attorneys general making a more compelling argument than the group of doctors. Erin Hawley is senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom. She argued the case before the court, and here she is in a briefing for reporters.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ERIN HAWLEY: We still have work to do. The ADF is encouraged and hopeful that the FDA will be held to account.
NADWORNY: You know, Rob, even the providers I talk to expect more challenges. I talked to Melissa Grant, who leads Carafem, which runs abortion clinics and telehealth services in several states.
MELISSA GRANT: Ultimately, it's a tepid happiness here because we know that there are other shoes to drop, and we look for this case to come forward with gusto again in the next several months.
NADWORNY: So providers are kind of bracing for more challenges. Melissa says the main thing she can do now is tell people her medical care will remain the same as it's been for the last two years.
SCHMITZ: That's NPR's Elissa Nadworny. Elissa, thanks so much.
NADWORNY: You bet.
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.