The abortion pill belongs to the category of medicines insofar as it is subject to marketing authorization, at least in Europe and the United States, and must be prescribed by a doctor. The two main active ingredients in the abortion pill are mifepristone, launched on the European market in 1982, and misoprostol.
The issue addressed here is the patentability of the abortion pill itself. Indeed, most patent laws provide for exceptions to patentability, including inventions whose commercial exploitation would be contrary to ordre public and morality, as well as therapeutic treatment methods applied to the human body.
