The approval of medication abortion care, 20 years ago today, was supposed to usher in a new era of abortion access in this country, to lessen the political and cultural stigma of abortion, to end the vitriol, quiet the noise, and give women an important new option to end an early pregnancy. This vision has yet to be realized.
The story of how medication abortion care got approved bears re-examining today as it is both relevant and also offers a framework for confronting the ongoing, ever-escalating threats not only to legal abortion but to family planning as well.