Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with a donation of any size.

Even though many legislative sessions only just convened across the country this month, efforts to restrict access to abortion pills are in full swing, particularly in states that already ban abortion.

Nearly 200 anti-abortion bills have been introduced in 29 states, according to an estimate by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization.

“In 2026, medication abortion remains one of the central battlegrounds in the fight over reproductive autonomy, with policymakers in several states pushing bills that would criminalize patients, restrict telehealth and mailing, and even misclassify abortion pills as controlled substances or environmental hazards,” Kimya Forouzan, Guttmacher’s principal policy adviser for state issues, said in a statement.

Some measures targeting abortion medication, including proposals in Arizona and Missouri, have not moved past introduction or beyond referral to initial committees. But lawmakers in Republican strongholds like Indiana and South Carolina have advanced bills that would allow residents to sue providers and manufacturers of mifepristone and misoprostol, key abortion drugs, for sending abortion pills into the state.

Those efforts echo laws passed in Texas and Louisiana that come with $100,000 payouts if plaintiffs are successful in court. Leaders in states that ban abortions have been clear that the intent behind these measures is to thwart the availability of abortion drugs, States Newsroom reported.

Our reproductive rights reporting team will be tracking abortion-related bills through biweekly........

© Truthout