Federal safety rules prohibit prescribing the abortion drug mifepristone to terminate pregnancies after 10 weeks’ gestation, but that’s not stopping the booming online abortion-pill business.
A report released Tuesday by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute found 81% of online providers that report their data will ship abortion drugs to women whose pregnancies exceed 70 days’ gestation, a violation of the Food and Drug Administration safety protocol.
That’s not all.
The report found that eight companies mail mifepristone to states in defiance of their abortion restrictions, such as prohibitions on using telehealth to prescribe the pills and mail them directly to patients.
In addition, 18 foreign-based companies require no identification before ordering the pills. Of those, 17 send unapproved or mislabeled drugs to U.S. customers.
Mia Steupert, institute research associate and the report’s author, said that the “Wild West of online abortion drug access” should serve as a “wake-up call to policymakers.”
“The abortion industry loves to claim ’abortion is healthcare,’ but their actions and advocacy have shown they don’t want abortion to be treated with the same level of regulatory scrutiny as legitimate medical procedures,” Ms. Steupert said in a statement.
“No one should be able to obtain abortion drugs as easily as purchasing something off Amazon,” she said.
81% of online abortion businesses ship abortion drugs to pregnant women beyond the FDA’s 10-week gestational limit.
These businesses are flagrantly ignoring the FDA’s requirements in the name of “healthcare.”
More: https://t.co/oKdzWP5Gpa#abortiondrugs…
— Charlotte Lozier Institute (@LozierInstitute) May 26, 2026
The disturbing findings come with concerns about mifepristone rising to the forefront after the Biden administration loosened federal safety restrictions in the interest of increasing access, including eliminating the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone in 2023.
The Trump administration is facing pressure from pro-life groups to restore the restrictions, as well as review the FDA’s 2000 decision approving the drug for use in pregnancy termination.
The issue is also playing out in the courts.
&Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court allowed mifepristone to remain available by telehealth, temporarily blocking a lower-court ruling in Louisiana’s lawsuit challenging the FDA’s Biden-era rollback.
The Lozier report examined online abortion providers found on the Plan C directory, including 42 virtual-only organizations; 38 hybrid brick-and-mortar centers; three international online organizations; 18 “e-commerce websites”; and five community networks.
Not all the companies disclosed their policies, but of those that did, 64 providers were in violation of the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy limiting use of the abortion-pill protocol to end pregnancies at 10 weeks’ gestation.
None of the companies in the three categories operating outside the U.S. system (international online organizations, e-commerce websites, and community networks) comply with the REMS requirements, the report said, citing their use of drugs not approved by the FDA.
Even so, federal oversight has been minimal.
In 2019, the FDA sent abuse letters to 28 companies. Of those, “10 are still active and breaking federal law by selling unapproved and misbranded abortion drugs to U.S. women,” the report found.
While the abortion pill has become the most popular method of pregnancy termination, about 78% of abortions are still performed or facilitated at brick-and-mortar facilities, but the number of telehealth abortions is rising.
The institute reported that “from April through June 2022, roughly 5% of all U.S. abortions performed within the formal healthcare system were via telehealth. That percentage increased to 20% from April through June 2024 and 27% from April through June 2025.”
The expansion of online mifepristone access is largely credited with the counterintuitive uptick in abortions since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned Roe v. Wade and prompted most Republican-led states to outlaw most abortions.
Pro-choice advocates argue that online providers have helped women in red states gain needed access to abortions, while pro-life groups counter that the telehealth rules are placing women’s health in danger.
“The Joe Biden rule stripping away in-person doctor visits allows the online abortion drug industry to send mifepristone to kill unborn children far beyond the 10-week timeframe the FDA has established — putting women at increased risk for life-threatening complications,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America.
She cited the rise in cases of men surreptitiously slipping abortion drugs to their pregnant wives and girlfriends.
“Anyone can get these drugs with a few taps on their phone,” Ms. Dannenfelser said. “You don’t have to prove how far along you are, that you’re pregnant, or even that you’re a woman to obtain these drugs.”
