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The Brian Lehrer Show

The Abortion Pill Lands in the Courts

The Brian Lehrer Show

WNYC

York, News, Politics, Radio, Arts, News Commentary, Public, Lerer, Media, Wnyc, Bryan, Daily News, New, Nyc, Npr

4.61.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On Monday, the Supreme Court temporarily reinstated a Food and Drug Administration rule allowing the abortion pill mifepristone to be prescribed via telemedicine. Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent at The Nation and author of Killers of Roe: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Abortion Rights (Hachette, 2026), explains the legal battle over the abortion pill playing out in courts and how abortion access in the United States could be upended if reproductive care becomes inaccessible through the mail. Plus, Kristyn Brandi, MD, abortion provider in New Jersey and previous board chair with Physicians for Reproductive Health, explains how abortion access has expanded via telemedicine post-Roe and how abortion care providers are navigating shifting policies.

Transcript

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0:00.0

It's the Brian Lera Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. On today's show, we will alert you to a scam that's

0:17.6

taking place out there in which someone is posing to represent me and this show

0:22.9

and other WNYC hosts and shows. We will alert you about that fishing scheme coming up.

0:29.1

Also, law professor and legal affairs podcast host Melissa Murray, many of you know her from

0:34.2

her podcast and her television work work with a new annotated edition

0:38.2

of the United States Constitution. We'll also get her take on some of the legal issues we've

0:42.8

been talking about in the news, including around voting rights and the abortion pill.

0:47.7

And before we get to Melissa Murray, let's actually start today on some of the context

0:52.4

around the abortion pill case with the whiplash

0:56.0

that providers and recipients experienced just over the course of the last weekend into yesterday.

1:02.4

Some of the background, the state of Louisiana, as some of you know by now, which has a near

1:07.8

total ban on abortion, went to court to stop distribution of the drug,

1:13.2

Miphyprisone, by mail. On Friday, the Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans

1:19.3

said that while the lawsuit proceeds, the Food and Drug Administration needed to reinstate

1:25.5

a requirement that patients must visit medical providers in person

1:29.9

to obtain Mipipristone. That change immediately impacted the entire country, specifically those

1:36.5

seeking abortion pill access in states like Louisiana where access is limited or effectively

1:41.7

outright banned. So access to the pills by mail is more common than

1:46.0

before. And even more important in a certain way that it might be in a place like New York or New Jersey

1:53.4

where people can go to a doctor in person and get pills or get surgical abortions in some cases. But by yesterday, Supreme Court

2:03.0

Justice Samuel Alito, of all people, put a one week hold on that rule change from Louisiana's

2:10.2

Fifth Circuit Court, Alito of all people, keeping the abortion pill by telehealth available,

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