Ian Freckelton1
Abstract:
This paper reviews the changes over two decades in the United States and Australia in relation to drugs enabling medical abortion. 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 abortion and abortion medications is likely to inspire comparable challenges in other countries, including Australia. However, it argues that the clinical trajectory of changes made gradually over two decades by the FDA in the United States, the TGA in Australia and Medsafe in New Zealand, together with evolving attitudes in the community, are likely to protect the availability of first trimester abortion medications.
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