Medical Termination of Pregnancy: Law and Controversies in the United States and Australia.

Abstract

This editorial reviews the changes over two decades in the United States and Australia in relation to the law governing access to drugs enabling medical termination of pregnancy. It also scrutinises three contentious decisions by the United States Supreme Court between 2022 and 2024 in relation to abortion. It argues that the receptive environment in the United States Supreme Court, as it is currently constituted, to challenges to the lawfulness of terminations of pregnancy and abortion medications is likely to inspire comparable challenges as part of the "Abortion Wars" in other countries, including Australia. However, a combination of factors is likely to protect access to terminations, particularly first trimester medical terminations. These include the clinical trajectory of changes made gradually over two decades by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia and Medsafe in New Zealand; evolving attitudes in the community; and the subversive accessibility of "mere pills".