Next battle over access to abortion will focus on pills

(AP) - Pills sent through the mail will grow in importance if the Supreme Court follows through with its leaked draft opinion that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and allow individual states to ban the procedure. 

Use of abortion pills has been rising in the U.S. since 2000 when the Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone — the main drug used in medication abortions. 

More than half of U.S. abortions are now done with pills, rather than surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Two drugs are required.

The first, mifepristone, blocks a hormone needed to maintain a pregnancy.

A second drug, misoprostol, taken one to two days later, empties the uterus.

Both drugs are available as generics and are also used to treat other conditions.

The FDA last year lifted a long-standing requirement that women pick up abortion pills in person.

Federal regulations now also allow mail delivery nationwide.

Even so, 19 states have passed laws requiring a medical clinician to be physically present when abortion pills are administered to a patient.