Abortion pill access faces conservative court challenge.

A federal appeals court in New Orleans will hear arguments in a lawsuit that seeks to remove the abortion pill mifepristone from the US market. The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine sued the FDA in November, claiming the agency did not use the correct process to approve mifepristone and that the medication is unsafe. Mifepristone, used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, accounts for about half of all abortions domestically. The outcome of the hearing could determine whether women will continue to have access to what has become the common method to terminate a pregnancy in the US.