This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Naomi Cahn is a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia and Sonia Suter is a Professor of Law at George Washington University.
have Planned Parenthood鈥檚 clinics to close their doors and to make it harder, if not impossible, to get abortion pills as part of a two-pronged approach to limit access to abortion.
First, undermine Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers by questioning their credibility and . Second, 鈥� a drug 鈥� in part by saying it鈥檚 unsafe.
As law professors who , , we鈥檙e closely watching what鈥檚 happening with both strategies. We are particularly interested in how they will affect , now that .
Attacking Planned Parenthood
Opponents of abortion rights are because its of thousands of abortions, in addition to more than , every year.
For example, it screens patients for cancer, provides contraceptive care, tests people for sexually transmitted infections, conducts pregnancy tests and offers prenatal services. Abortions account for only .
Conservative-led states are taking aim at the nonprofit with both litigation and legislation.
For example, the attorneys general of Missouri and Florida allege in 2025 lawsuits that Planned Parenthood鈥檚 of mifepristone.
Planned Parenthood is not the only nonprofit that is accused of deceiving the public that way. In December 2025, the sued , a reproductive health education nonprofit, alleging that its advertising in South Dakota violated a state law that bans 鈥�.鈥�
In late January, after Mayday countersued in a federal court in New York, that court .
Other states are taking similar steps. Kentucky, which, , has a , is investigating the legality of . The ads tell women how they can get help obtaining an abortion.
Undermining funding
Meanwhile, state and federal efforts to reduce Planned Parenthood鈥檚 funding are making headway.
In June 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in in favor of South Carolina鈥檚 attempt to bar its Medicaid program from reimbursing Planned Parenthood for health care services. That decision made it clear that any state may deny Medicaid funding for care provided by organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, that perform abortions.
Medicaid, the U.S. government鈥檚 health insurance program that , is jointly funded by federal and state governments. About who received family planning services and are enrolled in Medicaid relied on Planned Parenthood鈥檚 services in 2021. EG: Is it more accurate to say 鈥溾�� who in 2021 received family planning services and WERE enrolled in Medicaid relied on Planned Parenthood鈥檚 services鈥�?
Under what鈥檚 , federal Medicaid dollars may not be used to pay for abortions except in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest. States are free to use their own Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions, .
Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, Congress passed a measure from going to any clinics that perform abortions 鈥� such as Planned Parenthood.
The provision, which bars reimbursement for all services, including those unrelated to abortion, was in package that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025. The defunding measure went into effect immediately, , and applies to the whole country.
The provision is supposed to end .
Due in part to the financial pressure that measure caused, Planned Parenthood says that .
, as well as 22 states and Washington, D.C., challenged this provision in two lawsuits in a Massachusetts federal court.
The court granted Planned Parenthood鈥檚 request to in January 2026. The other case, brought by the states and Washington, D.C.鈥檚 local government, .
Trying to discredit mifepristone鈥檚 safety
Efforts to designate mifepristone as a dangerous drug began before the Food and Drug Administration . Abortion opponents have stepped up that campaign since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with its .
That same year, opposed to abortion challenged the FDA鈥檚 approval of mifepristone and the guidelines governing its prescription.
In essence, they claimed that there was insufficient evidence demonstrating the drug鈥檚 safety, although it has been used by . Several prominent medical associations, citing hundreds of peer-reviewed clinical studies and decades of evidence-based research, assert that the drug is 鈥�.鈥�
Many studies have found that mifepristone is as .
Ultimately, because the doctors did not have standing. That is, the physicians couldn鈥檛 show that they faced any clear and concrete harms from the FDA鈥檚 actions making mifepristone more widely available.
Arguing that the FDA made a mistake
But in 2024, the were allowed to join the lawsuit, after they argued that .
The similarly claimed that the FDA acted improperly in 2016 as well as later, when it loosened the regulations around mifepristone, including allowing it to be .
While their case works its way through the courts, other states are questioning the FDA鈥檚 treatment of the drug.
In late 2024, Louisiana , restricting their use more tightly than the FDA. In October 2025, the state went further, challenging the FDA鈥檚 loosened regulations, including its elimination of .
And in early December, Florida and Texas sued the FDA. Those states argue that its approval and regulation of mifepristone violated several federal laws, including one that .
Revisiting safety findings
There are also regulatory threats to mifepristone鈥檚 availability because the Trump administration is reconsidering evidence regarding the drug鈥檚 safety.
In September 2025, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the FDA would conduct 鈥�,鈥� including the drug鈥檚 鈥渞eal-world outcomes and evidence, relating to the safety and efficacy.鈥�
Kennedy cited by 22 Republican state attorneys general that, according to Kennedy, indicates 鈥減otential dangers that may attend offering mifepristone without sufficient medical support or supervision.鈥�
The report has not been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal. Many experts describe it as 鈥�.鈥�
If the FDA were to find mifepristone unsafe or to further restrict how it鈥檚 prescribed, this could make it harder to get an abortion. While misoprostol, which is , can be used alone for abortions, it is less effective and less safe than when it鈥檚 .
What happens next might take a while. Some efforts to end access to mifepristone appear to be on hold 鈥� for political rather than legal reasons.
told the officials working in his agency in December 2025 to delay their review of data concerning the safety of mifepristone 鈥渦ntil after the midterm elections鈥� in November 2026.
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