The Next Abortion Battlefront

Abortion policy in America is at a stalemate. Republicans will take control of Congress in January, ready to block any national protections—but with a slim majority, making a national ban unlikely. At the state level, pro-choice advocates have focused for the past two years on ballot measures to protect abortion rights. Most of those measures have passed; now there are only two states left that have severe restrictions, allow constitutional amendments, and haven’t already failed to pass constitutional protections.

Since was overturned in 2022, U.S. abortion rates have held steady, or even risen. That’s in part because tens of thousands of women in states with extensive restrictions have ordered the two-pill regimen, mifepristone and misoprostol, by mail. Many thousands more have sought out procedural abortions in states with more lenient rules, and that number may soon begin to rise more steeply. The pills brought by the attorneys general of three conservative states seeks to both outlaw mifepristone for minors and prevent it from being mailed. Project 2025, a blueprint for Donald Trump’s second term created by people with close ties to his incoming administration, outlines a plan to have the FDA pull mifepristone from the market. (Trump himself has on whether he might try curbing access to the pill.)