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On the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Dr. Graham Chelius has to send his patients to the airport if they want a medication abortion. The FDA has put the abortion pill in its most restrictive category of medicine - a category reserved for drugs so risky they have to be taken in front of a medical professionals. But the safety record of the pill is actually better than drugs you can pick up at any pharmacy with a prescription. We unpack the politics behind these regulations and why Dr. Chelius is suing the FDA to remove them.

It has a better safety record than penicillin and Viagra, yet unlike those medications, you can't get the abortion pill at a pharmacy with a prescription. That's because for 20 years , the Food and Drug Administration has imposed tighter restrictions on the abortion pill than on some opioids. And all of this poses a burden on women - particularly those in rural and medically underserved areas.