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The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it would decide on the availability of a commonly used abortion pill, the first major case involving abortion on its docket since it overturned the constitutional right to the procedure more than a year ago. The Biden administration had asked the justices to intervene after a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit favored curbing distribution of the drug, mifepristone, appearing skeptical of the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of the pill in recent years. In its ruling, the panel said that the pill would remain legal, but with significant restrictions on patients’ access, including prohibiting the medication from being sent by mail or prescribed by telemedicine. (VanSickle, 12/13)

Medication abortion is the preferred method of ending pregnancy in the U.S., and one of the two drugs used — mifepristone — will now go in front of the U.S. Supreme Court next year. Demand for the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol has grown as states have imposed bans or restrictions or seek to limit abortions after the reversal of Roe v. Wade in June 2022.Conservative groups filed lawsuits targeting mifepristone, which is the only drug approved specifically for abortion, seeking to reverse its approval or rollback policies that have made it easier to obtain. The Supreme Court will hear a case in the spring that could block mail-order access to mifepristone and impose restrictions on its use, even in states where abortion remains legal. (Perrone, 12/13)

The Supreme Court's decision to review the availability of a commonly used abortion pill doesn't just open another chapter in the nation's abortion wars — it's also a direct challenge to the Food and Drug Administration's power to regulate drugs. (Bettelheim, 12/14)

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said that he believes the Supreme Court should overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Ramaswamy said at a CNN town hall in Iowa on Wednesday that the case, which the court agreed earlier on Wednesday to hear, is about the authority that regulatory agencies have without direct authorization from Congress. He argued that the FDA exceeded its authority in approving the pill in 2000. (Gans, 12/13)

Some of the Republicans seeking their party’s 2024 presidential nomination have said the case of a Texas woman whose health deteriorated as she unsuccessfully sought an abortion should be handled with “compassion,” but they did not criticize the state’s law. It’s the latest indication that the candidates see the politics surrounding abortion as a delicate — and fraught — issue for the GOP after the Supreme Court’s reversal of constitutional protections for the procedure helped power Democrats to unexpectedly strong performances in the 2022 midterms. (Kinnard, Fernando and price, 12/13)

The burst of lawsuits that put pregnant women front and center reflects a shift in approach by the abortion rights movement, which has long brought challenges through claims by clinics and doctors who remain affected by abortion restrictions beyond the narrow window during which patients would be seeking to end their pregnancies. The strategy behind the new, high-profile lawsuits has both legal and political implications for the fate of abortion access in the ever-evolving aftermath of the fall of Roe v. Wade, according to experts tracking the cases. They enable advocacy groups to chip away at the new laws by highlighting particular circumstances that jeopardize the health of the mother — while compelling the courts, as well as the country, to reckon with some of the most harrowing consequences of abortion bans. (Kitchener, 12/13)

The New Mexico Supreme Court, based on arguments it heard on Wednesday, appeared poised to block several local ordinances in the state that aim to restrict distribution of the abortion pill. However, the high court appeared unlikely to rule that the state's constitution includes a right to abortion, as the state's Attorney General Raul Torrez, a Democrat, had urged, leaning instead toward deciding the case on narrower legal grounds. (Pierson, 12/13)

The share of American women who say they have ever used emergency contraception after having sex has more than doubled since the so-called "morning after" or Plan B brand pills were approved to be sold without a prescription, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. The increase is among dozens of trends tracked in two reports now released from the CDC's National Survey of Family Growth, examining survey results through 2019 on sex and birth control among teens as well as all women ages 15 to 44 years old. (Tin, 12/14)

From several types of hormonal pills to implants, IUDs, and vaginal rings, women have a lot of birth control choices that are both non-surgical and reversible. Men have just one: Condoms, which are 87% effective in preventing pregnancy, and thus less reliable than many other methods. Attempts to change the status quo have been scarce and unsuccessful. In 2016, a trial for a hormonal male birth control pill was halted after men reported side effects including acne and mood swings — though such side effects are also experienced by women on various hormonal contraceptives. (Merelli, 12/13)