U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley filed laws final week that will undo federal approval of mifepristone, a key abortion drug, nationwide. The transfer underscores the anti-abortion motion’s rising dissatisfaction with the Trump administration’s strategy to the difficulty. 

“Congress should act now to guard the well being and security of girls,” Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, mentioned in a Wednesday assertion. 

Hawley’s invoice would direct the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration to withdraw its approval of mifepristone to terminate pregnancies, make distributing the drug a violation of federal regulation and permit girls to sue abortion drug producers. 

“That is simply one more try to attempt to discredit mifepristone, which we all know from a long time of analysis is a really protected and efficient methodology,” Plan C co-founder Elisa Wells instructed States Newsroom. “The claims put forth on this invoice, this try to unjustly prohibit entry, are false, they usually’re primarily based on bogus science that conservatives are placing forth as actual.” 

Regardless of lots of of research pointing to the medicine’s security, the FDA is conducting a overview of mifepristone, a drug the company authorized greater than 25 years in the past. 

Republican attorneys normal from Louisiana, Missouri, Idaho, Kansas, Florida and Texas have grown impatient with the FDA’s strategy to abortion coverage and brought issues into their very own fingers by suing the federal authorities and asking the courts to ban the tablet from being prescribed via telehealth, amongst different restrictions. The Division of Justice has sought to delay these lawsuits — or dismiss them completely — arguing that the litigation is interfering with the FDA’s overview of mifepristone. 

A pending request within the Louisiana case for an injunction on telehealth abortion care, if granted, may restrict entry nationwide, not less than quickly. 

Main anti-abortion teams endorsed Hawley’s laws this week, together with the Ethics and Public Coverage Heart. The conservative assume tank revealed a non-peer reviewed paper in April that mentioned practically 11% of people that took abortion medicine ended up experiencing critical hostile occasions, although there’s dispute over how that’s outlined within the paper. The FDA’s label for Mifeprex — a model of mifepristone — states that critical hostile results had been reported in lower than 0.5% of girls. 

In January, researchers at Johns Hopkins College revealed a examine reviewing the paperwork the FDA used when assessing mifepristone’s laws from 2011 to 2023. The authors concluded that the company primarily based its selections on scientific proof as a substitute of ideological bias and acted with warning when widening the drug’s availability. 

Reproductive well being researchers refuted the Ethics and Public Coverage Heart’s strategy to its mifepristone paper, States Newsroom reported. However Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered a overview of mifepristone a couple of weeks after its publication and instructed Hawley the findings had been “alarming” throughout a Senate listening to. 

Within the states, Republican lawmakers have honed in on limiting the provision of abortion medicine, the commonest method to terminate early pregnancies within the U.S. Laws that will open the door to an avalanche of lawsuits towards abortion suppliers and drugmakers await governors’ signatures — or vetoes — in Mississippi and South Dakota. 

Republican legislators framed these measures as closing loopholes that enable individuals to entry abortion medication in states the place abortion is banned. Telehealth medicine abortion prescribed by suppliers in states with protect legal guidelines accounted for 27% of all abortions offered in the course of the first half of 2025, in line with the Society of Household Planning’s newest #WeCount report. 

Our reproductive rights reporting crew has been monitoring these payments carefully this 12 months. Relying on the partisan make-up of a state’s legislature and different state authorities officers, some payments have a greater likelihood of passing and changing into regulation than others.

Alaska 

Home Invoice 326: This invoice would explicitly stop suppliers from providing medicine abortions remotely, and it might require a follow-up appointment inside two weeks of offering an abortion “to verify that the being pregnant was terminated.” 

In a sponsor assertion, Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe mentioned his invoice “raises the usual of care and ensures that these medication will not be distributed anonymously or with out doctor involvement.” McCabe mentioned he believes that life begins at conception, and he sponsored failed laws in 2024 that will outline a fetus as an individual within the state’s felony code, Alaska Beacon reported. 

Standing: Within the Home Well being and Social Providers, Judiciary Committees 

Sponsor: Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe 

Indiana 

Senate Invoice 236: The Indiana Senate authorized laws in January that will have allowed Hoosiers to sue anybody concerned in sending abortion drugs to the state, making suppliers and drugmakers liable. Plaintiffs may have collected not less than $100,000 in the event that they gained the lawsuit, Indiana Capital Chronicle reported. 

The invoice would have additionally elevated the quantity of information about abortion sufferers that the state receives, and it might have declared that remedies for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies will not be abortions, which is medically inaccurate. Mifepristone and misoprostol can be utilized to deal with early being pregnant loss, and methotrexate can be utilized to deal with ectopic pregnancies — when the fertilized egg grows within the fallopian tubes as a substitute of the uterus — in the event that they’re recognized early, in line with the American Academy of Household Physicians. All three of these medication are thought of abortion-inducing medicines. 

Standing: Failed — Home declined to take up the invoice earlier than session ended 

Sponsor: Republican Sen. Tyler Johnson  

Kentucky 

Home Invoice 646: This invoice would classify abortion medication as managed harmful substances, which might make them more durable to entry throughout obstetric emergencies. Anybody discovered responsible of getting abortion medicine illegally would withstand three years in jail. Pregnant girls who’ve the medication of their possession can be exempt from penalties. 

Beneath the proposal, anybody discovered responsible of mailing or sending abortion drugs into Kentucky may additionally withstand three years behind bars. The invoice would enable a pregnant particular person, their partner, mother or father or authorized guardian to sue suppliers who prescribe abortion medicine to Kentucky residents. Suppliers who deal with abortion issues should additionally inform sufferers about this authorized treatment if the invoice turns into regulation. 

Standing: Within the Home Judiciary Committee 

Sponsor: Republican Rep. Nancy Tate 

Oklahoma

Senate Invoice 1657: The measure would prohibit individuals from making, mailing, transporting or distributing abortion medicine within the state. It will enable individuals to convey lawsuits towards those that possess abortion medication, and plaintiffs may obtain as much as $100,000 if their claims win in court docket. Girls who terminate their pregnancies or try to self-manage abortions can be exempt from litigation. 

Standing: Within the Senate Well being and Human Providers Committee 

Sponsor: Republican Sen. Julie Daniels 

Mississippi   

Home Invoice 1613: This laws would make it unlawful to promote, manufacture, distribute or dispense abortion-inducing medication within the state, which bans all abortions until the mom’s life or well being is in danger. 

Violators may face between one and 10 years in jail, and the state lawyer normal may implement civil penalties towards the particular person, too, Mississippi Free Press reported. The Home handed the invoice in February, and the Senate authorized the invoice on March 11. If Republican Gov. Tate Reeves indicators the measure, it might take impact in July. 

Standing: On governor’s desk 

Sponsors: Republican Reps. Kevin Horan and William Tracy Arnold 

South Dakota  

Home Invoice 1274: The state Senate authorized a invoice Monday that will make dishing out, distributing, promoting or promoting abortion drugs and some other abortion-related “instrument” or “article” unlawful. Violators of the measure may face two years in jail, a $4,000 nice or each, South Dakota Searchlight reported. 

The lawyer normal may search penalties of as much as $10,000 for every violation, and the cash would go in a fund used to pursue anti-abortion litigation. Republican Legal professional Common Marty Jackley reached a settlement with Mayday Well being this week over an over abortion medicine advertisements it ran at fuel stations throughout the state final 12 months, Searchlight reported. 

Standing: On governor’s desk 

Sponsors: Republican Reps. John Hughes and Greg Blanc 

West Virginia

Senate Invoice 173: The state Senate authorized a invoice final month that will prohibit abortion drugs from being despatched to West Virginians. Docs may lose their medical licenses, and nonmedical professionals may face three to 10 years in jail for mailing abortion drugs into the state, West Virginia Watch reported. 

The laws contains an exemption for suppliers who supply the drug for a “authentic medical purpose.” Legislators authorized an modification by Republican Sen. Eric Tarr that will make the state lawyer normal file an annual report on lawsuits filed on behalf of pregnant individuals who used abortion drugs. Individuals who sue the particular person or entity that despatched abortion drugs into West Virginia may acquire as much as $10,000. 

Standing: In Home Judiciary Committee 

Sponsor: Republican Sen. Chris Rose 

This story was initially produced by Information From The States, which is a part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit information community which incorporates Louisiana Illuminator, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

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