Diverse Stakeholders Implore Supreme Court to Preserve Abortion Pill Access

If the justices take up the case, they could hear oral arguments early next year and issue a decision by late June 2024, influencing fall elections.

10/19/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER

On Thursday, Oct. 12, a wide range of organizations filed 14 amicus curiae briefs supporting a Justice Department petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Fifth Circuit decision imposing nationwide limits on access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Supporting the government’s appeal were reproductive rights organizations, medical and legal experts, patient advocacy groups, 257 members of Congress, 23 states and D.C., over 600 state legislators, state and local governments and officials, and pharmaceutical industry representatives, including GenBioPro, which makes a generic form of mifepristone.

“This legal attack on medical abortion has no basis in law or fact,” said GenBioPro CEO Evan Masingill. “Decades of science support mifepristone’s safety and efficacy. GenBioPro firmly believes that all people, regardless of income, gender, race or geography, have a right to access evidence-based healthcare and safe and effective medicines, and that includes medical abortion.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/19/supreme-court-abortion-pill-mifepristone/

USA – Pharmacies begin dispensing abortion pills

A handful of pharmacies are offering the pills 10 months after the Biden administration allowed them to do so.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and LAUREN GARDNER
Oct 6, 2023

A handful of independent pharmacies across the country have quietly begun dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone under new rules created by the Biden administration earlier this year, even as a looming Supreme Court case could reimpose restrictions or ban the drugs entirely.

Thousands of branches of major pharmacy chains are poised to join them — making the drugs more accessible to millions of people nationwide and kicking off a new phase of the legal and political battle over the most popular method of ending a pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/06/pharmacies-begin-dispensing-abortion-pills-00120397

West Virginia – Judge rejects argument by abortion pill maker that state ban violates Constitution

GenBioPro claimed West Virginia's ban on mifepristone was at odds with the FDA.

By Anne Flaherty
August 24, 2023

West Virginia has the right to block the sale of the abortion drug mifepristone, even though federal regulators have decided the medication is safe, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers is a blow to abortion rights groups that had hoped to strike down state bans using a novel and somewhat arcane legal argument invoking an idea known as "federal preemption."

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/judge-rejects-argument-abortion-pill-maker-state-ban/story?id=102545092

24.08.2023

News

Evan Masingill

Food and Drug Administration

Appeals court says abortion pill mifepristone should remain on the market but rules in favor of limiting access

By Tierney Sneed
Wed August 16, 2023

A federal appeals court on Wednesday wiped away a lower court’s ruling that would’ve taken the medication abortion drug mifepristone off the market, but upheld aspects of the ruling that could cut back access to the pills.

The ruling from a conservative three-judge panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals will not affect the current availability of mifepristone, as the Supreme Court has already said that the drug and regulations that make it accessible will remain in place for the time being.

Continued :https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/politics/abortion-pill-mifepristone-5th-circuit/index.html

USA – FDA says it will greenlight pharmacies to fill prescriptions for abortion pill

Pharmacies would have to become certified and a prescription is still needed.

By Anne Flaherty
January 3, 2023

The abortion pill mifepristone is safe enough that retail pharmacies can begin dispensing it so long as a certified health care provider prescribes the drug and if that pharmacy meets certain requirements, according to new rules published Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

If pharmacies jump on board, the FDA action could dramatically expand access to the drug in states where it's already legal. Doctors, for example, might be more willing to get certified to prescribe the drug because they would no longer have to stock it themselves and could write a prescription much as they would any other medication.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fda-greenlight-pharmacies-fill-prescriptions-abortion-pill-agency/story?id=96115469

America’s first generic abortion pill, explained

America’s first generic abortion pill, explained
The introduction of a generic abortion medication could mean lower costs for patients, but barriers to access remain.

By Anna North
Aug 20, 2019

In 2000, a new method of abortion became available in America: an oral medication called mifepristone.

Previously, the procedure in the early stages of pregnancy often involved emptying the uterus by suction. But taken with another medication called misoprostol, mifepristone can end a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks without the need for an in-clinic procedure. Patients can go through much of the process in whatever setting they like, with whomever they like — or alone.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/20/20750226/abortion-pill-mifepristone-pregnancy-genbiopro-mifeprex-generic