Abortion Pills, Take Two
Radiolab
WNYC Studios
4.6 • 43.5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Abortion pills — a combo of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol — are on notice: on April 7, 2023, a federal judge said the FDA’s approval of mifepristone was invalid. And then, not more than an hour later, another federal judge in a separate case said that mifepristone had to stay on the market in certain states. With these two contradictory rulings, mifepristone — and medical abortion, in general — is in the crosshairs. So, today, we want to rewind to an episode we made last year. It looks at these two drugs over the last 40 years, from their origin stories and development, to how their administration from doctors to patients keeps evolving. This story, for us, started…
Special thanks to Mariana Prandini Assis and Pam Belluck.
EPISODE CREDITS
Reported by - Molly Webster, Avir Mitra Produced by Sarah Qariwith mixing help from - Arianne WackFact-checking by - Diane Kellyand Edited by - Becca BresslerCITATIONS:
Articles:
From one of our sources, Abigail Aiken: “Safety and effectiveness of self-managed medication abortion provided using online telemedicine in the United States: A population based study” (https://zpr.io/kG3hNFXM4kb9)
Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Wait, you're listening to radio lab from W and Y. |
| 0:16.0 | Hey, this is Radio Lab. |
| 0:19.5 | I'm Laptop Nasser. |
| 0:20.5 | I'm Lulimiller. |
| 0:22.0 | And we find ourselves, as sometimes we do, in a moment where we're thinking back to an |
| 0:27.7 | old episode we did, because the topic we covered is sparking all over the news right |
| 0:34.8 | now. |
| 0:35.8 | Yeah. |
| 0:36.8 | And that topic is the quote unquote abortion pills. |
| 0:39.8 | And on April 7th, 2023, which for us is also known as last Friday, a federal judge in |
| 0:45.3 | Texas ruled that the FDA's approval of one of those drugs, Mifopristone, was invalid. |
| 0:52.9 | According to him, it should have never been approved. |
| 0:55.6 | And later that day, an hour or so later, in an entirely separate case in Washington state, |
| 1:01.0 | a federal judge ruled seemingly the opposite that the FDA must continue to make Mifopristone |
| 1:06.6 | available in certain states that same drug. |
| 1:09.6 | And then on top of that, there have been multiple motions to appeal that first Texas |
| 1:15.2 | ruling we talked about. |
| 1:16.2 | Very chaotic. |
| 1:17.2 | A lot going on for the time being Mifopristone is still available. |
| 1:21.6 | But this all means that these cases will likely work their way up the federal court system. |
| 1:25.8 | And we will eventually see rulings that could have real staying power and real consequences. |
| 1:31.0 | And so given that there is suddenly so much attention on this pill, we wanted to share |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.