State Restraints on Abortion Pill Access Tee Up New Legal Battle

State efforts to ban medications that terminate a pregnancy are likely to be the next big legal fight over abortion regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court decides to do with Roe v. Wade.

Alabama, Mississippi, Kansas, and 16 other states now have laws requiring a clinician to be physically present when abortion-inducing drugs are administered, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. These laws prohibit drugs like mifepristone from being prescribed through a telehealth appointment, and some prevent them from being sent by mail. In Texas, violators can be jailed and fined up ...