4 questions answered about the courts and the abortion pill mifepristone

Dueling, back-to-back rulings by federal judges about access to the drug mifepristone, which is used in most abortions in the United States, have raised questions about the future of reproductive health care in the country.

On Friday in Texas, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone should be put on hold, more than 20 years after the agency first authorized the drug. Kacsmaryk stayed his own order for seven days to give the federal government time to appeal.

At nearly the same time in Spokane,...