Justice Department's warning to states over abortion pill bans points to legal fight ahead

With the Justice Department's recent warning to states not to ban a federally approved drug that induces an abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration signaled that medication abortion may be the next front in the fight to preserve abortion rights in states that are curtailing access.

Twenty-two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug mifepristone — taken together with a second medicine — for use in terminating a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation. Last December, the agency lifted a requirement that the medication be...