FDA says abortion pills can be sent by mail

By Tierney Sneed, CNN
Thu December 16, 2021

(CNN)The US Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it is lifting a requirement that patients seeking medication abortion had to pick up the medication in-person, instead allowing pills to be sent by mail. The move comes as the Supreme Court is poised to undo its abortion rights precedent.

Relaxing the federal restrictions on medication abortion is one thing that the Biden administration could do mitigate the fallout from a Roe v. Wade reversal, but red states are already on the march to counteract what the federal government has opted to do.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/16/politics/medication-abortion-fda-supreme-court/index.html


FDA relaxes controversial restrictions on access to abortion pill by mail

Updated December 16, 2021
Sarah McCammon, Jonathan Franklin – NPR

The Food and Drug Administration has announced it will relax controversial restrictions on a heavily regulated medication used to induce abortions — easing access to the drug at a time when abortion rights are being increasingly restricted nationwide.

The drug, mifepristone, is approved for use in combination with another medication, misoprostol, to terminate pregnancies up to 10 weeks and is sometimes used to treat women experiencing miscarriages.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/15/1064598531/the-fda-could-permanently-lift-some-restrictions-on-abortion-pills


The FDA may be about to make the abortion pill more accessible

BY USHMA UPADHYAY
DEC. 10, 2021

In the course of just a few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases on abortion access. The first, SB 8, is a Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy. The second, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is a Mississippi law banning abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy. Both cases could bring an end to the ability to access abortion as a federal right.

While the constitutional fight continues in court, there is another opportunity in the coming days for the federal government to help maintain abortion access: by allowing people to get abortion pills as soon as they need them.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-12-10/fda-abortion-pill-accessible


The FDA Should Remove Its Restrictions on the ‘Abortion Pill’ Mifepristone

The science is clear: abortion by medication is safe and effective

By Kelly Cleland
on August 21, 2021

The pandemic has shown us that it’s time to change the way we get health care and that essential health care, including abortion, has always been out of reach for far too many. As we look ahead to the future of care, the science is clear: medication abortion care is safe and effective, and it’s past time to remove the restrictions on it. Now, actions from the FDA and new research show us that removing the restrictions on medication abortion care has the potential to expand access for many people who need care. The July 2021 special issue of the journal Contraception focuses on the restrictions on medication abortion, mifepristone, including its impacts on safety and efficacy, access to abortion, and burdens on patients and providers.

Continued: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-fda-should-remove-its-restrictions-on-the-abortion-pill-mifepristone/


USA – Abortion Pill Effective for Treating Fibroids, But Anti-Abortion Politics Stymie Access

7/26/2021
by CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

In 2000, the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved mifepristone for abortion during the first seven weeks of pregnancy, later extending allowable use to ten weeks in 2016. While widely known as an abortion pill, mifepristone is very effective for treating fibroids and may also be effective for treating endometriosis and depression.

Yet the drug is not available to use for these serious conditions because the FDA tightly restricts the medication due to intense anti-abortion pressure. The politicization around mifepristone has made research on its usefulness in treating these conditions difficult to conduct, preventing its development for treatments that could significantly enhance women’s health.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/07/26/mifepristone-abortion-pill-fibroids-endometriosis-depression-fda-rems-biden/


USA – Telemedicine options for abortion are here to stay

Through pandemic necessity, an ad-hoc, telehealth model for reproductive healthcare is sticking around.

By KYLIE CHEUNG
PUBLISHED JUNE 20, 2021

As much of the country prepares to return to some form of post-pandemic normalcy, reproductive health care providers and advocates hope we continue one vital pandemic tradition: telemedicine options for receiving and providing reproductive care from home.

Some researchers and providers have found offering medication abortion care via telehealth is crucial to bridging gaps in abortion access. Abortion medication care is safe and effective up to 10 weeks into one's pregnancy, and providers say that having a telehealth component to abortion care may even help establish greater medical trust and comfort for patients from marginalized communities seeking care.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2021/06/20/telehealth-abortion-access-pandemic/


Why Biden Needs to Go Big on Abortion

To be a transformational president, Biden has to fight loud and hard against the Republican assault on reproductive rights.

by Emily Crockett
May 10, 2021

Many progressives found themselves pleasantly surprised with Joe Biden after his first 100 days in office. He’s willing to go big, embrace the legacy of FDR and LBJ, and pass trillions in investments on party-line votes if Republicans don’t offer real solutions. In his first joint address to Congress last month, Biden laid out his agenda and made an unapologetic, empathetic case for big solutions to big crises: not just the pandemic and economic collapse, but also climate change, gun violence, systemic racism, immigration, and more. From the well of the House, Biden proudly advocated for just about every progressive reform that his administration supports. Yet he was silent on one major issue: the decimated state of access to safe, legal, and affordable abortion and the Republican Party’s continually escalating efforts to make it worse.

Continued: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2021/05/10/why-biden-needs-to-go-big-on-abortion/


FDA Allows Telemedicine Abortion During Pandemic

4/19/2021
by CARRIE N. BAKER

Last Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued long-awaited guidance lifting a restriction on the abortion pill mifepristone for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency. The move permits telemedicine abortion, a combination of medication abortion—using pills to end a pregnancy—and telemedicine, which allows health providers to supervise the use of abortion pills via videoconferencing or telephone consultations.

Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting FDA commissioner, wrote in a letter to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine that the FDA will waive a requirement that clinicians dispense the abortion pill mifepristone to their patients in a clinic or hospital setting. The letter said research studies on telemedicine abortion “do not appear to show increases in serious safety concerns occurring with medical abortion as a result of modifying the in-person dispensing requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/04/19/fda-telemedicine-abortion-pill-mifepristone/


F.D.A. Will Allow Abortion Pills by Mail During the Pandemic

The agency said it would stop enforcing a rule requiring women to get the first of two pills in person at a medical clinic or hospital.

By Pam Belluck
Published April 13, 2021

The Biden administration has decided to allow women to receive abortion pills by mail for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, the latest development in an issue that has increasingly taken center stage in the American abortion debate.

In a letter sent Monday to two leading organizations representing reproductive health physicians, the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said that the agency would temporarily stop enforcing its requirement that the first of two drugs needed to terminate an early pregnancy be dispensed in a medical clinic.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/health/covid-abortion-pills-mailed.html


Supreme Court Reinstates Barriers to Abortion by Telemedicine

The Court requires in-person visits for patients seeking medication abortion despite the risks of COVID-19.

Mar 15, 2021
Carrie N. Baker

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a Trump Administration request to reinstate a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule requiring patients seeking a medication abortion to make a medically unnecessary in-person visit to their health care provider to pick up the abortion pill mifepristone.

The Court’s decision in FDA v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reverses a federal district court ruling from last July that suspended the FDA rule during the pandemic. In that lower court decision, Judge Theodore Chuang ruled that the FDA’s required in-person visit imposed a “substantial obstacle” to abortion health care that is likely unconstitutional.

Continued: https://www.theregreview.org/2021/03/15/baker-supreme-court-reinstates-barriers-abortion-telemedicine/