About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of a Supreme Court ruling on access to medication abortion and its impact on reproductive rights and health.

In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, which guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion. But previously the Court had allowed restrictions on abortions, making access quite challenging in a large part of the country. In response to these restrictions, women had gained access through prescription drugs, or what is called medication abortion. This involves two prescription drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol. Last week, a federal court issued an order disallowing mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth and then distributed by mail. As we record today, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on this federal court order. So on today’s show, we take account to the status of access to medication abortion and what it means both for reproductive rights and health and for the law on this issue. [ dur: 58mins. ] Rachel Rebouché is Professor of Law at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Abortion Rights as Human Rights and co-author of The New Abortion Battleground and Abortion Pills (with David S. Cohen and Greer Donley). Carole Joffe is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of…

People in this episode

Guests: Rachel Rebouché, Carole Joffe

Topics covered

• abortion rights
• Supreme Court
• reproductive health
• telehealth
• legal implications
• medication abortion

Keywords

• medication abortion
• mifepristone
• misoprostol
• telehealth
• reproductive rights
• Supreme Court ruling
• abortion access

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Texas at Austin, University of California, San Francisco

Books & works: Abortion Rights as Human Rights, The New Abortion Battleground, Abortion Pills, Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe v. Wade, After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court ended Roe but not Abortion

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