“It doesn’t matter where it is coming from or where it is going, mifepristone will be there in the U.S. for women to use,” said Rebecca Gomperts, a doctor who founded Aid Access, an international organization that assists women who are unable to access local abortion services. “The Supreme Court cannot do anything about that. You cannot take away the need for an abortion with these kinds of rulings.”

Gomperts said Aid Access will continue to prescribe and mail the abortion pill to women in all 50 states, regardless of the ruling. Hey Jane, another prominent online abortion pill provider, said it will also continue providing telemedicine abortion care that includes mifepristone.

FDA decisions allowing the pill to be prescribed via telehealth and shipped to patients at home have expanded access to abortion across the country — even in the more than two dozen states that have strict bans on abortion.

Before the FDA widened access, medication abortion couldn’t be used at home. Women had to make three visits to a clinic or doctor’s office to terminate their pregnancy, taking the appropriate dosage of each medication during separate visits to the medical office.

“For some patients, losing a telehealth option for mifepristone would mean losing access altogether,” said Julia Kaye, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. She pointed to low-income women or those in rural areas who might face obstacles traveling to a provider willing to prescribe and dispense the drug, even if they live in a state that allows abortion.

Being able to access the pill through the mail has allowed patients to maneuver around state laws that restrict the procedure. It’s difficult to determine how prevalent medication abortion is in such places, as the latest data on the prevalence of medication abortion does not include pills mailed to people in states with abortion bans.

Gomperts said Aid Access mails about 9,000 doses of abortion medication to women in the U.S. each month, with roughly two-thirds of the doses going to people living in states that restrict the procedure.

“Research has shown overwhelmingly that it is safe for women to do their own abortion,” she said. “This is beyond any doubt.”

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(With assistance from Greg Stohr.)

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