Online Abortion Provider

If Trump Restricts Mifepristone, Clinicians Are Ready to Pivot to Misoprostol-Only Abortions

For decades, clinicians relied on the gold standard of medication abortion care: a two-pill regimen. Mifepristone is taken first, followed by misoprostol 24 to 48 hours later.

However, misoprostol can be used alone for abortion. Recent research on patients in the U.S. confirms that misoprostol-only abortion is not only safe and effective, but that patients respond positively to using it.

In light of the FDA’s recent decision to reopen its safety review of mifepristone—a move advocates warn may lead to new restrictions—abortion providers say they are ready to offer the misoprostol-only regimen to keep telehealth abortion available in all 50 states.

“Despite decades of medical evidence supporting the safety of mifepristone, it is entirely possible that Trump’s FDA could ignore the data and impose further restrictions on mifepristone, including a return to in-person dispensing requirements,” said Elisa Wells, co-founder and access director of Plan C, an abortion pill information and advocacy campaign. “If this happens, we know that many providers would pivot to a misoprostol-only regimen, which is also safe and effective.”

This Organization Took Out Pro-Abortion Newspaper Ads—in the Hometowns of the Justices Who Voted Down Roe

To celebrate the nationwide accessibility of abortion pills—even three years after Dobbs—Mayday Health took out a series of cheeky ads in the hometown newspapers of each of the five Supreme Court justices who struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022: Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

The five ads each feature a picture of the justice in question and cheerfully announce, “Abortion pills are more popular than ever. Thanks, Brett! [Or Neil, Amy, Clarence or Samuel]”

Plan C’s Road Trip Takes Abortion Access to the People

For the second year in a row, Plan C, the intrepid grassroots campaign for abortion pill access, is hitting the road on a cross-country trip to spread the word about abortion pills: that they are safe, effective and available to everyone, everywhere.

Plan C is teaming up with grassroots organizers in all 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico to share abortion pill information through “pop-ups, panels, performances, and bold community activations centered on truth, agency, and access.”

Keeping Score: Devastating Attacks on USAID; Louisiana Indicts N.Y. Doctor; Autumn Lockwood Is First Black Woman Coach to Win Super Bowl

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: Musk and Trump’s USAID attacks have devastating impacts; 80% of the clean energy investments from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act—which Trump wants to roll back—are in Republican congressional districts; Louisiana indicts a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills; new executive orders go after workers and LGBTQ people; the Laken Riley Act was signed into law; childcare costs affect the health of parents; and more.

Ahead of the Ban: How Advance Provision Abortion Pills Are Reshaping Access

An increasing number of healthcare providers are prescribing abortion pills in advance of pregnancy, and many people are ordering these pills to have on hand in case they or a loved one needs them. Between September 2021 and April 2023, over 40,000 people ordered advance provision abortion pills. In one recent national survey, 65 percent of respondents said they would be interested in having these medications on hand. Advance provision abortion pills can significantly shorten the time between the decision to end a pregnancy and having an abortion. Growing legal restrictions on abortion and threats of even more restrictions once Trump is back in office have made this option more important than ever. 

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.

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.

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.)

Massachusetts Abortion Provider Serves Patients Living in States Banning Abortion

Since Dobbs, an increasing number of abortion providers are providing telemedicine abortion services to women living in states banning abortion. 

Today there are four practices with over two dozen providers that provide telehealth abortion services to people in restrictive states. One of them is the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, called The MAP for short. Ms. spoke with the medical director of The MAP: Dr. Angel Foster, a Harvard-trained obstetrician/gynecologist and health sciences professor at the University of Ottawa, where she leads a large research group that’s dedicated to global abortion work.