According to Bloomberg, the “abortion pill,” i.e., mifepristone (RU-486), is safe and effective but its use is hampered by all sorts of restrictions imposed by the FDA. As a result, it is rarely used in the United States. If Roe v. Wade were to be overturned (which is higly possible, if not probable), the Biden administration and the Democrats could react by removing these restrictions. That would defang a lot of red states’ attempts to ban abortion since women would be able to obtain the pill by mail from providers in blue states. The red states would of course outlaw this but the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce so they should fail in the courts (not a given with today’s Supreme Court). In any case, it should be a winning political strategy for Democrats since polls show a majority favoring abortion rights. They would gain votes among moderates without losing any (the anti-abortionists aren’t going to vote for Democrats anyway).
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There are a lot of odd aspects to this. For one, if it would be so easy to remove the restrictions on mifepristone, why haven’t they been removed already? (As Bloomberg suggests, the usual FDA criteria do not result in the restrictions, so there’s an unusual dynamic already in play.)
Another question is whether the voters on each side of the issue are equally intense. As is often reported about guns, there are a lot more people who care passionately about gun rights than who care passionately about gun control, so “the voters” push legislation toward gun rights, despite that most voters prefer gun control.