Abortion

Louisiana Says Men Are Spiking Women's Drinks With Abortion Pills. There's Scant Evidence of That.

Mail-order mifepristone is how countless women bypass abortion bans. That could soon change if Louisiana gets its way before the Supreme Court.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 5.6.2026 11:00 AM

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Men are spiking women's drinks with abortion pills and it's the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's fault. At least that's Louisiana's contention in a case the Supreme Court is now eyeing.

But there's scant evidence to support Louisiana's fantastical claim.

Nor does the state's argument that in-person prescribing requirements could stop abortion-pill coercion really hold up under scrutiny. Women like Rosalie Markezich, the plaintiff at the center of this case, may certainly feel pressured by partners to take abortion pills. But fear of abuse doesn't stop at a doctor's door, and women with controlling or violent partners could still face reproductive coercion no matter how many prescribing rules are put in place.

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The case concerns the FDA removing an in-person dispensing requirement for abortion pills. Remote prescribing and mail-order pills have become a last resort for abortion access in states with bans. This has made them a major target in ban states like Louisiana.

Last October, Louisiana and Markezich sued the FDA, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and various officials—including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—over the FDA's 2023 decision to do away with a requirement that mifepristone must be prescribed and dispensed in person. That decision made permanent a temporary allowance for mail-order prescriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Louisiana alleges that "bad actors have been able to obtain FDA-approved abortion drugs from prescribers in other states and then secretly spike women's drinks without their knowledge."

But there simply isn't any evidence that anything like this is happening at any scale.

Notably, Louisiana does not cite even one such case in its complaint. It simply asserts that this happens and then moves on.

If this sort of thing were happening frequently, we would certainly know about it. These cases would make not just local news but headlines across the country. There would be prosecutions and lawsuits and trials.

But searching........

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