Court put on a bit of a show over the mifepristone litigation. Or, at least, the oral arguments were so widely and intensely followed it smelled a bit like a Barnum production. There is much that one might say about this dispute. But this is the first time you will have seen anything about it in this humble blog, so for today I will just stick to some of the basics. Mifepristone is part of the standard medicinal protocol for early-term abortions. Early here means within 70 days of a pregnant woman's last menstrual period. When it was first introduced in the United States the usual term was RU 486, and I am not sure when that more resonant term [it always sounds like a question, to be followed by "well, ARE YOU???"] lost favor. Was RU 486 a brand name? The percentage of abortions in the US that are medicinal rather than surgical has increased steadily since the approval of mifepristione here at the turn of the millennium. According to the CDC numbers, only ...