How about some good news on abortion rights for once?

Mifepristone will now be made available to major national pharmacy chains:

For the first time, retail pharmacies, from corner drugstores to major chains like CVS and Walgreens, will be allowed to offer abortion pills in the United States under a regulatory change made Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration. The action could significantly expand access to abortion through medication.

Until now, mifepristone — the first pill used in the two-drug medication abortion regimen — could be dispensed only by a few mail-order pharmacies or by specially certified doctors or clinics. Under the new F.D.A. rules, patients will still need a prescription from a certified health care provider, but any pharmacy that agrees to accept those prescriptions and abide by certain other criteria can dispense the pills in its stores and by mail order.

The change comes as abortion pills, already used in more than half of pregnancy terminations in the U.S., are becoming even more sought after in the aftermath of last year’s Supreme Court decision overturning the federal right to abortion. With conservative states banning or sharply restricting abortion, the pills have increasingly become the focus of political and legal battles, which may influence a pharmacy’s decision about whether or not to dispense the medication.

This is not a panacea — the next Republican administration will presumably try to reverse the policy, and there will be pressure in red states on pharmacies not to stock them — but you can say that about anything; moving the baseline toward reproductive rights is all you can do.

Also some good news at the state level:

The South Carolina Supreme Court struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban on Thursday, ruling that the law that restricted abortions after detectable fetal cardiac activity “an unreasonable restriction upon a woman’s right to privacy” and unconstitutional.

The 3-2 decision means abortion in South Carolina is now legal until around 20 weeks of pregnancy. The ruling comes nearly two years after the state enacted the law, known as the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act, which banned abortion after six weeks except in limited cases like pregnancies that would endanger the pregnant person’s life or that were the result of rape or incest.

“Few decisions in life are more private than the decision whether to terminate a pregnancy. Our privacy right must be implicated by restrictions on that decision,” said Justice Kaye G. Hearn, writing for the majority.

Again, this isn’t permanent — the South Carolina legislature, which chooses judges for the state Supreme Court, will get an anti-reproductive-rights majority eventually — but every year of abortion access matters, especially with a more draconian ban likely to pass in Florida thus year.