AMNA NAWAZ: For more than 25 years, the drug mifepristone has been approved for abortion in the United States.

And it's been used safely by more than 7.5 million American women.

But mifepristone and a similar drug have also been proven to treat common and often painful women's health conditions like uterine fibroids and endometriosis.

In the first part of our two-part series "Beyond Abortion," special correspondent Sarah Varney and producer Rachel Wellford traveled to Europe and across the U.S.

to report on this treatment, as anti-abortion groups lobby the Trump administration to further restrict these drugs.

DEJA CRADLE, Uterine Fibroids Patient: I had always had rough periods, since -- I'm going to say since my first period.

SARAH VARNEY: Deja Cradle was just 11 years old when she started menstruating.

DEJA CRADLE: It was horrible cramping.

I would have to sometimes stay home or I would go to school and have to come back home because I'd get so sick that I would, like, vomit.

SARAH VARNEY: And when you went to the doctor or talked to your mom about it, what were you -- what were you told about that kind of experience?

DEJA CRADLE: So my mother would say she had experienced the same thing too when she was growing up.

And then everyone else made it seem like it was just normal.

SARAH VARNEY: And for almost 20 years, that's how it went for Deja, an otherwise healthy young woman growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts.

DEJA CRADLE: I'd started to get random cramps without being on my period as well.

I would say my nausea and pain got worse, to the point where I had to come up with a regimen because my cycles got so bad to the point where I couldn't keep down water.

SARAH VARNEY: And then, in 2013, during a trip to the E.R., doctors determined she had cysts and a hormone imbalance.

But it would take another six years until Deja was diagnosed with uterine fibroids.

DEJA CRADLE: So I went to the emergency room.

They did an ultrasound to make sure I didn't have a blockage.

And then that's when they -- to see how many fibroids I had.

SARAH VARNEY: Fibroids are growths made of muscle and tissue that grow in or on the wall of the uterus, the largest ones to the size of a watermelon.

They're not cancerous, but they are extremely common, affecting 70 percent of white women and more than 80 percent of Black women by the age of 50.

They can cause extreme pain, bleeding, and infertility.

And, on average, it takes more than three years before women get treated.

Many of the treatments available in the United States today involve invasive procedures and surgeries.

The most common one has been hysterectomy, when the uterus is removed.

But there is another treatment that's very effective and noninvasive.

DR.

ABBY LIBERTY, Oregon Health and Science University: Well, this looks like it's definitely trending with interesting patterns.

SARAH VARNEY: Across the country in Portland, Dr.

Abby Liberty says there are two drugs that have been shown to help women with fibroids.

The OB-GYN and researcher at Oregon Health and Science University says those options are not available to women in the U.S.

One drug is an emergency contraceptive, and the other the widely used abortion medication mifepristone.

Both drugs have a long history of safe use, and they work by blocking the effects of a hormone called progesterone.

DR.

ABBY LIBERTY: And so when you block hormones, you're blocking the signal to grow, and you might also be changing the area around the fibroids so that it's easier for the body to make it smaller.

There are a lot of potential creative uses to make surgery more minimally invasive.

Making fibroids smaller means that you have a quicker recovery time, smaller incision on the uterus.

Even minutes in the operating room matter.

SARAH VARNEY: Study after study across the globe has shown that both drugs can shrink uterine fibroids up to 50 percent.

Physicians in China and India prescribe these drugs already to patients with fibroids and endometriosis.

That's when tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside of the uterus.

REP.

CHRIS SMITH (R-NJ): The abortion pill, mifepristone, is baby poison.

SARAH VARNEY: Anti-abortion groups here have waged a decades-long war against mifepristone.

And they have cast doubt that it's a safe and effective way to treat non-abortion conditions.

Recently, they have turned their sights on the emergency contraceptive known as Ella when it was shown to end an early pregnancy at higher doses.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration launched a review of mifepristone.

Two years ago, Louisiana made the drug a controlled substance.

And, today, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida are suing to restrict access.

Dr.

Liberty and other researchers believe these political forces are halting progress in women's health.

DR.

ABBY LIBERTY: The United States will be left behind because of the red tape around these medicines and the way they have been politically framed.

And so abortion stigma directly limits access to them and investment in them as a potential treatment option.

SARAH VARNEY: And that's led some women to search for treatments on their own.

DANIELLE SHOBACK, Endometriosis Patient: I feel like my period would just always take up like a week of my life and just be like cutting out chunks of my life.

SARAH VARNEY: Danielle Shoback lives in Jersey city, just outside of New York.

The 36-year-old spent more than 20 years suffering from debilitating periods and chronic fatigue that nobody could diagnose.

DANIELLE SHOBACK: It was difficult to, like, take enough medication to be able to sleep, so I was always kind of like getting up and having to take more medication.

And I think, as I got older, it just would get worse, and then was kind of something that I couldn't cover up with just that.

SARAH VARNEY: Danielle ended up in the emergency room multiple times, but doctors gave her no answers.

DANIELLE SHOBACK: I mean, the reason I ended up looking online and trying to figure things out is just because I don't really feel like there were a lot of good options.

SARAH VARNEY: So she started Googling studies and found the results of a clinical trial in China.

That study and others found mifepristone reduced bleeding and pain from endometriosis.

DANIELLE SHOBACK: I brought it up to a couple of doctors, and they thought it was quite crazy.

Like, my gynecologist at the time didn't really take it seriously.

They'd -- a lot -- they didn't really want to try something outside of the box like that.

SARAH VARNEY: Then she found a telemedicine site that prescribes mifepristone to women around the world, including in countries where it's restricted.

DANIELLE SHOBACK: So I basically reached out to that organization and was just like, do you have anyone you can connect me with?

Do you know how I might go about this?

I know it's kind of a crazy sort of thing.

SARAH VARNEY: The person who answered Danielle's e-mail was Dr.

Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physician and researcher who has spent her career getting women access to abortion medication.

DR.

REBECCA GOMPERTS, Physician and Researcher: So this is emergency contraceptives.

It sits here.

And this is the Ella one.

This is ulipristal.

And you can just buy it over the counter.

SARAH VARNEY: And this -- you can't get this in the United States over the counter, prescription only.

DR.

REBECCA GOMPERTS: No, you cannot.

It's only prescription.

SARAH VARNEY: Dr.

Gomperts believes there's no reason women shouldn't be able to use medications that work.

DR.

REBECCA GOMPERTS: What is so wonderful about this is that it is such a safe drug, and especially younger women, where it's been researched extensively.

So you have a safe drug that can actually have that effect.

SARAH VARNEY: Dr.

Gomperts says, even in countries where abortion is stigmatized, women still benefit from the same drugs that are restricted in the U.S.

DR.

REBECCA GOMPERTS: I mean, Europe has such a difference.

The institutions are much more resilient to this kind of political pressure and to this kind of intervention from hostile governments.

SARAH VARNEY: And she says there's a lot at risk when countries restrict or even criminalize mifepristone and similar drugs.

DR.

REBECCA GOMPERTS: It will take away very valid treatment options for complaints and diseases that only women have, and thus it will increase disease burden.

It will increase mortality among women, for sure.

So it's a very fundamental discrimination against women.

SARAH VARNEY: Danielle Shoback ended up taking mifepristone for almost two years, until she was finally able to get surgery for her endometriosis.

DANIELLE SHOBACK: I definitely think it -- I don't know if this is dramatic, but it definitely changed my life a lot, maybe saved my life, because I was very depressed about just how much I was missing.

I was missing about, like, half of my life.

DEJA CRADLE: It makes me think about my niece.

What will her options be if she has to go through this?

SARAH VARNEY: And Deja Cradle says it's up to women now to fight for their own health.

DEJA CRADLE: I feel like we have to continue to bring awareness about it, because I think that the country moves when there's awareness.

I feel like it's sort of like the civil rights movement.

Nobody wants to make the laws different until people rally together to bring this to light.

And I think that's what we have to do as women at this point.

SARAH VARNEY: For "PBS News Hour," I'm Sarah Varney in Springfield, Massachusetts.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tomorrow, in the next report, we look at how researchers are exploring more potential for these drugs, including cancer prevention, and how that work is becoming more difficult to do in the U.S.