Telehealth abortion providers eye new options for patients under loosened FDA rules

By Katie Palmer
Jan. 9, 2023

In the past year, there’s been a significant surge in interest in medication abortion via telehealth, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the Food and Drug Administration made it possible for patients to get a prescription online and have the drug delivered to their front doors.

Now, telemedicine patients will have more pathways to care. A finalized rule from the FDA makes permanent the ability to distribute the medication by mail, while newly allowing retail pharmacies to distribute mifepristone, one of two drugs used to safely end an early pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.statnews.com/2023/01/09/abortion-telehealth-online-pharmacy-mifepristone/

Justice Department clears Postal Service to carry abortion drugs into red states

The opinion offers limited assurances for activists seeking to work around abortion bans.

By JOSH GERSTEIN and ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN
01/03/2023

The Justice Department has cleared the U.S. Postal Service to deliver abortion drugs to states that have strict limits on terminating pregnancy, and has offered limited assurances that a federal law addressing the issue won’t be used to prosecute people criminally over such mailings.

A legal opinion, from Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, concludes that a nearly 150-year-old statute aimed at fighting “vice” through the mail is not enforceable against mailings of abortion drugs as long as the sender does not know that the drugs will be used illegally.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/03/justice-department-postal-abortion-drugs-00076274

03.01.2023

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abortion pills by mail

Christopher Schroeder

Comstock Act

Food and Drug Administration

‘Record’ number of abortion pills sent to Malta in 2022

Doctors for Choice say 424 pills were sent to Malta, up from 356 in 2021

December 26, 2022
Daniel Ellu

A record number of abortion pills - 424- were sent to Malta this year, the pro-choice organisation Doctors for Choice claimed on Monday. The organisation said 356 pills were sent in 2021.

“As an abortion rights organisation based in Malta, we consider the increase in abortion pill packs sent to Malta by reputable online telemedicine providers to be a positive thing,” Doctors for Choice said in a statement.

Continued: https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/record-number-abortion-pills-sent-malta-2022.1003744

26.12.2022

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abortion pills by mail

Andrea Prudente

Doctors for Choice

remote abortion access

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Texas – El Paso woman defies state abortion bans

by Victoria Rossi
December 11, 2022

Ruth runs through a checklist as she packs. There’s ginger chews for nausea, chamomile tea for calm, two thick pads for bleeding. Inside seed packets of cantaloupes, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, she slips two smaller plastic baggies containing abortion pills, which she’s labeled by hand.

A few months earlier, Ruth would feel her heart pound as she assembled the kits, a rush of adrenaline as she drove to mail them, wondering if she’d get stopped – and if stopped, arrested. Now, she said, “The fear is gone. And I’m just at righteous indignation.”

Continued: https://elpasomatters.org/2022/12/11/el-paso-texas-woman-distributing-abortion-pills-defies-bans/

USA – For-Profit Abortion Telemedicine Start-Ups Are Proliferating in Wake of “Roe”

Garnet Henderson, Truthout
November 26, 2022

In 2020, a federal judge ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must suspend its requirement that patients pick up mifepristone, one of the pills used in medication abortion, in person. After some back-and-forth under the Trump administration, the FDA permanently repealed the rule, which had long been decried by medical experts as unnecessary, in 2021.

This opened the door for providers to send abortion pills by mail in all but the 19 states that outlaw provision of abortion via telemedicine. (Many of those same states now ban abortion entirely.) This regulation change, along with increased popular interest in abortion access following Roe’s overturn, has led to a proliferation of telemedicine companies offering abortion pills. Some of these companies are run by people with prior experience in abortion care and connections in the reproductive health, rights and justice movements; others are not. Regardless, some abortion access advocates are raising concerns about whether the rise of for-profit telemedicine companies is the best way to serve abortion seekers.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/for-profit-abortion-telemedicine-start-ups-are-proliferating-in-the-wake-of-roe/

American Women Turn to Cheap Abortion Pills From India Post Roe

Mail order businesses in India are shipping the pills to women in the US

By Bruce Einhorn and Dhwani Pandya
November 3, 2022

Angry over the US Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June, Deborah Willoughby wanted to do more than attend a rally or make a donation. So she sat down at her computer and placed an order for a pack of abortion pills from India sold under the brand name Unwanted.

India has many online pharmacies offering to sell mifepristone and misoprostol, drugs commonly used to terminate pregnancies — no questions asked and no prescription required. Plan C, an American group that provides information on how to obtain at-home abortion medication, needed volunteers to test online suppliers’ delivery claims. Willoughby signed up and placed an order via Secureabortionpills.com, which describes itself as an online international pharmacy selling generic drugs.

Continued: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-03/roe-v-wade-us-women-turn-to-cheap-abortion-pills-from-india

Polish activist on trial for aiding abortion

A Polish human rights activist has been accused of illegally giving abortion pills to a woman seeking to end a pregnancy. She's now on trial in a Warsaw court, facing up to three years in prison.

Monika Sieradzka
Oct 18, 2022

It's a gray morning in Warsaw, where a couple dozen police officers have encircled the courthouse with 10 large vehicles. They are here to protect two large demonstrations at what is expected to be a spectacular trial.

Some 50 people have gathered in front of the building in the Polish capital to show their solidarity with Justyna Wydrzynska, a 48-year-old activist from the Abortion Dream Team network who stands accused of aiding and abetting a pregnancy termination. That's against the law in Poland, and carries a sentence of up three years in prison.

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/poland-activist-on-trial-in-warsaw-for-aiding-abortion/a-63483151

Desperate pleas and smuggled pills: A covert abortion network rises after Roe

Amid legal and medical risks, a growing army of activists is funneling pills from Mexico into states that have banned abortion

By Caroline Kitchener
October 18, 2022

Monica had never used Reddit before. But sitting at her desk one afternoon in July — at least 10 weeks into an unwanted pregnancy in a state that had banned abortion — she didn’t know where else to turn.

“I need advice I am not prepared to have a child,” the 25-year-old wrote from her office, once everyone else had left for the day. She titled her post, “PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/

How some providers are working around abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned

Workarounds ensure doctors aren't breaking laws, experts and advocates say.

By Mary Kekatos
Video by Jessie DiMartino
October 17, 2022

Some state officials as well as abortion providers are trying to find workarounds to help patients who want to end their pregnancies after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Since the late June ruling, at least 12 states have ended nearly all abortion services, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/providers-work-abortion-bans-roe-wade-overturned/story?id=91435808

Abortion Pill Providers Experiment With Ways to Broaden Access

These new efforts, which test the legal boundaries, have sprung up since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and many states restricted abortion.

By Pam Belluck
Sept. 3, 2022

As bans and restrictions proliferate across the country, abortion pill providers are pushing the envelope of regulations and laws to meet the surging demand for medication abortion in post-Roe America.

Some are using physician discretion to prescribe pills to patients further along in pregnancy than the 10-week limit set by the Food and Drug Administration. Some are making pills available to women who are not pregnant but feel they could need them someday. Some are employing a don’t-ask-don’t-tell approach, providing telemedicine consultations and prescriptions without verifying that patients are in states that permit abortion.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/03/health/abortion-pill-access-roe-v-wade.html