Abortion Pills

Medication abortion uses two FDA-approved oral medications to end a pregnancy: mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly referred to as “abortion pills.” Mifepristone interrupts the flow of the hormone progesterone that sustains the pregnancy, and misoprostol causes contractions to expel the contents of the uterus. You can use these pills in combination or use misoprostol alone.

Abortion pills are extremely safe. Serious adverse events occur in less than one-third of one percent of medication abortions. Abortion pills are over 95 percent effective when used within 10 weeks of the first day of your last menstrual period.

The organization Plan C has a comprehensive guide to finding abortion pills on their website at www.plancpills.org. Select “Find Abortion Pills” and then select the state where you are located from the drop-down menu. The website is continually updated and has all the latest information on where to find abortion pills from anywhere in the U.S.

Thought-Provoking, Policy-Changing and Narrative-Shifting: Ms. Magazine’s 10 Most Impactful Print Articles of 2024

Ms. spurred thought-provoking, policy-changing, narrative-shifting change in 2024—and created new feminist strategies and solutions for the year ahead. In a word: “impact.” Ms. commissioned high profile analysis and investigative journalism by some of feminism’s best journalists and thinkers, focusing on key issues impacting women and girls at a critical moment across the globe. Here are the Ms. editors’ top 10 impact articles in the past year, as seen in the print magazine.

(Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get the issues delivered straight to your mailbox.)

Texas Is Coming for the Abortion Pill

A new battlefront in the war on women is being led by right-wing extremist Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s coming with guns blazing after a New York doctor who prescribed and sent abortion pills to a 20-year-old Texas woman who requested and used them. In the first-of-its-kind lawsuit, Paxton is suing Dr. Margaret Carpenter for $100,000 in a Collin County, Texas, court for enabling an abortion in Texas … even though Carpenter practices medicine in New York, and what she’s doing—providing abortion pills to women in all 50 states—is legal in New York as a result of the state’s shield law.

Mifepristone Access, and What Comes Next for the Medication Abortion Drug

The future of mifepristone access is up in the air on multiple fronts right now—just five months after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s treatment of the medication abortion drug.

Now, though, Donald Trump has won election to the presidency—and questions about what his new administration will do to federal policy surrounding the drug are front and center.

Keeping Score: Women Stockpile Plan B Post-Election; Feminists React to Trump’s Cabinet Picks; Harriet Tubman Finally Recognized for Military Service

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Women stockpile emergency contraception and medication abortion after the election; one in five Americans gets news from social media influencers; House Republicans Nancy Mace and Speaker Mike Johnson harass incoming trans Representative Sarah McBride; Michelle Obama explains the double standards Kamala Harris faced; childcare costs more than rent for many families; Trump’s Cabinet picks spread sexist messages; Rep. Erica Lee Carter (D-Texas) became the 95th member of the Democratic Women’s Caucus after winning a special election to replace her late mother Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee; acknowledging Native Women’s Equal Pay Day; Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman was finally recognized for her military service; Trump’s margin over Harris will be about 1.5 points, the fifth-smallest gap since 1900; and more.

In New Book on Abortion Pills, Carrie Baker Chronicles the History of Resistance and Resilience That Changed the Abortion Landscape

“Pills have become the frontline of the battle for abortion access,” writes professor and Ms. contributor editor Carrie N. Baker in her new book Abortion Pills: U.S. History and Politics—the first to offer a comprehensive history of abortion pills in the United States.

A Third Woman Died Under Texas’ Abortion Ban. Doctors Are Avoiding D&Cs and Reaching for Riskier Miscarriage Treatments.

and

Wrapping his wife in a blanket as she mourned the loss of her pregnancy at 11 weeks, Hope Ngumezi wondered why no obstetrician was coming to see his wife. Over the course of six hours on June 11, 2023, Porsha Ngumezi had bled so much in the emergency department at Houston Methodist Sugar Land that she’d needed two transfusions. Three hours later, her heart stopped.

The 35-year-old’s death was preventable, according to more than a dozen doctors who reviewed a detailed summary of her case for ProPublica. Some said it raises serious questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to diverge from the standard of care and reach for less-effective options that could expose their patients to more risks. Doctors and patients described similar decisions they’ve witnessed across the state.

Porsha’s is the fifth case ProPublica has reported in which women died after they did not receive a D&C or its second-trimester equivalent, a dilation and evacuation; three of those deaths were in Texas.

In the Wake of Abortion Bans, Meet the College Students Fighting for Medication Abortion on Campus

Even in states where abortion is still legal, abortion is not necessarily available through college health services, leaving students to find their own care. In New York City, students at Barnard College—the historically women’s college affiliated with Columbia University just across the street—are working to help their peers access abortions. Because Barnard does not currently offer abortion, finding care is still a struggle even for students in New York—a state that’s become a haven for out-of-state abortion patients—even at a women’s college that was one of the Seven Sisters.

War on Women Report: 27 Women Accuse Trump of Sexual Assault; Louisiana’s Controlled Substances Law Criminalizing Abortion Medication Takes Effect

and

U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the city of Austin over its abortion travel fund.
—The number of women who have accused Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of sexual assault is now up to 27.
—Louisiana’s law reclassifying the abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol as “controlled dangerous substances” took effect on Oct. 1.
—In Manhattan, a 20-year-old woman is facing criminal charges for miscarrying in a restaurant bathroom.

U.S. Abortions Continue to Increase, Fueled by Telehealth and Shield State Providers

The number of abortions in the first half of 2024 was significantly higher than the same period for the previous two years—according to the Society of Family Planning’s eighth #WeCount report, released last week, which measures the number of abortions in the U.S. each month from April 2022 through June 2024.

There has been a 20.4 percent increase in just three years, despite abortion bans in 14 states and severe restrictions in many others. (And these numbers only include clinician-provided abortions—there are many more self-managed abortions occurring outside of the formal healthcare system.)