Abortion pill access protected in recent vote

On Friday, April 21 the Supreme Court voted to protect access to a widely used abortion drug by freezing lower-court rulings that placed restrictions on its usage.

Prior to the vote, in a statement released on the official California.gov website Governor Gavin Newsom said, “In response to this extremist ban on a medication abortion drug, our state has secured a stockpile of an alternative medication abortion drug to ensure that Californians continue to have access to safe reproductive health treatments. We will not cave to extremists who are trying to outlaw these critical abortion services. Medication abortion remains legal in California.”

Prior to the ruling, Governor Newsom announced that California had secured an emergency stockpile of up to 2 million pills of Misoprostol in case the drug was effectively banned.

Washington state, Massachusetts, and New York are the only other states to have stockpiled emergency pills as well.

Medication abortion is entirely legal in 21 states, including the entire West coast. In 14 states such as Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, the pill must be prescribed by a doctor.

Other 14 states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Idaho, and Tennessee have restricted and banned the pill in its entirety.

The abortion pill, also known as a medical abortion or medication abortion, is a way to end a pregnancy through the use of medication rather than surgery. It in