Carter Sherman

On May 4th, the Supreme Court stayed that ruling preserving access to Mifepristone, but that kicked off more than a week of uncertainty about the pill's future.

We are speaking the day after the Supreme Court issued a decision that preserved the status quo and preserves access to mail-order Mifepristone.

But this is definitely not the end of the case.

I'm wondering, what have those last few weeks been like for you?

It sounds like you had to mitigate all this confusion.

There was a lot of damage control you were trying to get done.

But I feel like folks might hear what had happened and think, okay, why don't people just take misoprostol?

Why is it a big deal to switch from a mifepristone plus misoprostol regimen to the misoprostol-only protocol?

It sounds like if you're saying that a misoprostol-only abortion is associated with more side effects, more nausea, more cramping, more bleeding, it does sound like those are abortions that cause individuals more suffering.

It feels like a punishment for people.

From the court.

It feels like the court is trying to punish people.

If it becomes no longer possible for abortion providers to mail abortion pills, what patients, are there particular groups of patients that you're most worried about?

One of the things that was most interesting to me about the ruling from the Supreme Court was actually the dissent that Justice Samuel Alito wrote.

And he says that at the heart of this case over Mifepristone is really, quote, the perpetration of a scheme to undermine our decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which is, of course, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade.

And what Alito is talking about is the existence of shield laws, which are these laws, as you know, that have been passed in states like New York and California and Massachusetts that seek to protect abortion providers from out-of-state prosecutions, even in cases where the providers are mailing pills across state lines into states that ban abortion.

The Massachusetts shield law is, of course, what makes the map possible.

When you saw Alito's dissent, when you saw that he is so skeptical of shield laws, what did you think?

What did you make of that decision?

We can't anticipate that this is going to happen, but really, cases like this have real implications for you as a person and other providers as individuals.