‘Hot mess’: Abortion pills at pharmacies could face legal quagmires, especially in restrictive states

By Sarah Owermohle
Jan. 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators’ green light for pharmacists to dispense abortion pills is crashing into legal questions and simmering court battles.

The Food and Drug Administration earlier this month removed a longtime restriction that only doctors could dispense mifepristone, which is approved for abortions up to 10 weeks. The move opens the door for pharmacists to supply the drugs and shores up protections for mail orders, which have become an important channel for abortion access in the wake of Roe’s overturn last summer.

Continued: https://www.statnews.com/2023/01/19/abortion-pills-at-pharmacies-legal-quagmires/

It’s Time for the Biden Administration to Let Pharmacists Dispense the Abortion Pill

Making the abortion pill available through pharmacies on prescription can improve abortion access—especially for those without an abortion clinic nearby.

4/6/2021
by DANIEL GROSSMAN and SALLY RAFIE

In the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequities to abortion care across the country. Last spring, at least 11 states attempted to exploit the crisis to enact additional abortion restrictions, falsely labeling it non-essential care.

In an attempt to ease abortion access during the pandemic, a federal judge in July 2020 halted the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion pill to allow patients to receive it by mail. However, this was reversed by the Supreme Court’s decision in January 2021 to once again enforce federal restrictions and clamp down on access to this critical medicine.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/04/06/biden-administration-pharmacists-dispense-abortion-pill-pharmacy/

Bhutan – Demand for abortion pills— a legal dilemma

October 10, 2020

The news of “demand for abortion pills rise in Thimphu” in Kuensel this week deserves our attention. The horrifying stories of abandonment of human fetuses and informal reports of unsafe abortions taking place across the border are sadly not uncommon in Bhutan. The issue of abortion is sensitive and controversial because the very nature of abortion is emotional, often against one’s social values and spiritual beliefs. It is also of moral and ethical dilemma among physicians.

Section 146 of the Penal Code of Bhutan (PCB), 2004, criminalizes abortion except when the mother’s life is in danger or of unsound mental condition or when pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. This provision is discriminatory itself as abortion is a crime only if certain criteria are not met violating the rights of both the mother and fetus.

Continued : https://kuenselonline.com/demand-for-abortion-pills-a-legal-dilemma/

India – Why your nearby chemist doesn’t have abortion pills, and why he should stock them

A new study throws light on the availability
of prescription-based medical abortion drugs with chemists as a way to prevent
early abortion care costs among other benefits for women exercising their
choice of terminating pregnancy

Written by Jayashree Narayanan
Published: August 19, 2020

Marking 49 years of the inception of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP)
Act in 1971, a new study out on August 10, 2020 evaluated the availability of
Medical Abortion (MA) drugs in six Indian states to understand the awareness
levels and perceptions of the chemists stocking and selling MA pills.

Despite the passage of the MTP (Amendment) Bill in March 2020 that extended the
upper limit for permitting abortion to 24 weeks from 20 weeks, the
non-availability of MA drugs, which are approved for use up to nine weeks of
pregnancy in India, is seen to be “threatening” to women’s access to safe
abortion and proper reproductive healthcare.

Continued: https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/medical-abortion-pills-mtp-act-chemist-study-6552205/

Getting an abortion in “the most pro-life state in America”

Getting an abortion in “the most pro-life state in America”
Welcome to the Louisiana clinic at the center of the court case that could gut Roe v. Wade.

By Anna North
Feb 19, 2020
Photographs by Annie Flanagan for Vox

SHREVEPORT, Louisiana — The first patients arrive around 10 am.

They wear boots and coats against the December cold, but there’s coffee inside to help them warm up. Christmas figurines — a Santa holding a tree, a quaint house covered in snow — give the place a homey feel. In the waiting room, Friends plays on the TV.

Even before they sit down, though, patients are confronted with reminders that this place is under threat.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2020/2/19/21070703/louisiana-abortion-case-supreme-court-law-roe

USA – This Abortion Drug Is Safe And Effective. Why Can’t You Buy It In A Pharmacy?

This Abortion Drug Is Safe And Effective. Why Can’t You Buy It In A Pharmacy?
A groundbreaking study is underway that could change how U.S. patients access abortion.

By Molly Redden, HuffPost US
July 18, 2019

A first-of-its-kind study underway in California and Washington state could pave the way for the Food and Drug Administration to make mifepristone, the most widely used abortion drug in the United States, available at pharmacies.

Today, mifepristone is only available at abortion clinics, doctor’s offices or hospitals, from providers who register with the drug’s manufacturer. The FDA imposes special rules on mifepristone that prevent it — unlike most medications — from being stocked and sold in a pharmacy.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/mifepristone-abortion-drug-pharmacy_n_5d28a234e4b02a5a5d59e6f6

Study explores role of pharmacy workers in expanding provision of medication abortion in Nepal

Study explores role of pharmacy workers in expanding provision of medication abortion in Nepal

Feb 4, 2019
Guttmacher Institute

Nepali pharmacy owners and staff who participated in a study on medication abortion provision in pharmacy contexts expressed confidence that they can deliver safe and effective services to their clients, and that they offer an important alternative in regions where women have limited access to clinic-based abortion care. The study, conducted by Goleen Samari of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and her U.S. and Nepali collaborators, is the first to examine the perspectives of these health workers and their role in offering pharmacy-based medication abortion in Nepal.

Despite the legalization of abortion in Nepal in 2002 and subsequent expansion of services, unsafe abortion is still common and exacts a heavy toll on women, as documented in the 2016 study, “Abortion Incidence and Unintended Pregnancy in Nepal.”

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2019/study-explores-role-pharmacy-workers-expanding-provision-medication-abortion-nepal

04.02.2019