On October 7, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told a federal court that its safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone will not be finished this year.

The agency expects study results by mid-December. Its report will come “no later than March 2027.” Only then will it decide whether to change how the pill is prescribed and mailed.

Until then, nothing changes. The pills keep coming through the mail, into Alabama, every day.

Over a Year of Waiting

Federal health officials announced this review in September 2025. Now it will run into its second year. The administration has asked judges to pause the lawsuits that challenge mail-order abortion pills while the review goes on, and has left the mail policy in place in the meantime.

But even a perfect FDA ruling would not end abortion in Alabama.

The Pills Are Only Part of the Problem

By the end of 2025, doctors protected by “shield laws” were providing 14,870 abortions a month by mail, according to the pro-abortion Society of Family Planning. They say those pills now account for nearly all abortions in states with so-called “total bans.”

Shield-state doctors already ignore Alabama’s law. A new FDA rule from Washington would not stop them either.

The real question isn't what Washington will do about the pill. It's what Alabama's own law says about the child.

And Alabama’s law still says abortion is not murder. The state’s homicide law protects a preborn child at any stage of development, then carves abortion out of that protection. A self-managed abortion is still legal in Alabama at any stage of pregnancy.

Read how the loopholes work.

Alabama Meets First

The Alabama Legislature’s 2027 regular session is expected to begin in early February. That’s weeks before the FDA’s March deadline.

Lawmakers don’t need a federal report to know that a preborn child is a person. Alabama’s own code already says so. They need to finish the job.

The Equal Protection Act repeals the provision that says abortion is not murder. It protects preborn children under the same homicide laws that protect everyone else, no matter how the abortion happens or where the pill came from.

What You Can Do

Don’t wait on Washington. Ask your legislators the question that matters before the session begins:

Will you cosponsor the Equal Protection Act?

Add your name to the petition to End Abortion in Alabama.

Sources: STAT and the Associated Press (October 8), OSV News via Catholic Review (October 12), #WeCount report from the pro-abortion Society of Family Planning (June 10, 2026)