USA – Progress in the bid to make abortion pills more widely available

The FDA has lifted some restrictions on mifepristone. It should lift them all.

By Rachel Rebouché, Greer Donley, and David S. Cohen
December 22, 2021

Earlier this month the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took the noteworthy step of removing a restriction on access to the drug mifepristone: Patients will no longer be required to collect the drug — the first of a two-drug regimen that induces abortion before 10 weeks of pregnancy — at a health care facility. The federal agency’s move appears to give a welcome boost to abortion access, but the FDA could and should have gone further.

When the FDA approved mifepristone in 2000, it dictated how the medication is prescribed and dispensed. The broad consensus among experts is that the FDA restriction on how patients could access the drug was unnecessary — mifepristone has a better safety record than penicillin and Viagra — and unique, given how other drugs of comparable risk are regulated.

Continued: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/22/opinion/progress-bid-make-abortion-pills-more-widely-available/

USA – Self-managed abortion could be the future — but it’s very hard to talk about

Especially in conservative states, advocates can’t talk openly about abortion methods that exist outside of the formal health-care system

Caroline Kitchener, The Lily
December 20, 2021

Two hours before the U.S. Supreme Court convened for the case that could make abortion illegal across much of the country, four women gathered on the court’s steps to propose another path forward. With a mifepristone pill in one hand and a loudspeaker in the other, Amelia Bonow started to chant.

“Abortion pills are in our hands and we won’t stop,” yelled the co-founder of the abortion rights organization Shout Your Abortion.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/self-managed-abortion-could-be-the-future-but-its-very-hard-to-talk-about/

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

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

Empowering women worldwide: A revolution in safe abortion care

28 September 2021
by Dr Manisha Kumar, head of MSF’s task force on safe abortion care

I became an abortion provider almost 10 years ago. Since then, I have helped countless people around the world access safe abortion care. I’ve also witnessed the devastating complications from unsafe abortion when people do not have access to this essential healthcare. Unsafe abortion is one of the main causes of maternal death and suffering worldwide, and the only one that is almost entirely preventable.

An abortion with pills is a game-changer. The simple regimen, taken over 24 hours, has the power to completely revolutionise access to safe abortion care, especially in low-resource and humanitarian settings, where MSF works. Used by millions of people for over 30 years, we have decades of research and experience showing how safe and effective abortion pills are.

Continued: https://www.msf.org/self-managed-abortion-pills-opens-access-millions-people

The fragility of abortion access in Europe: a public health crisis in the making

The Lancet
CORRESPONDENCE| VOLUME 398, ISSUE 10299, P485, AUGUST 07, 2021
Céline Miani and Oliver Razum

Poland is rightly being criticised for suppressing abortion services.1 Since January, 2021, abortion is only legal if the pregnancy is directly life-threatening or the result of rape or incest. However, countries with allegedly more progressive policies have reasons to be self-critical as well.

An example is Germany, considered a liberal country in terms of abortion law from an international perspective, since women can be granted an abortion on request for any reason, including socioeconomic reasons. Yet, abortion in Germany is technically a crime (albeit not punished up to 12 weeks from conception), and gynaecologists are losing court cases for stating on their websites that they provide abortion care in a supportive environment.2 Attacks on abortion rights and services are nourished by vocal conservative and religious forces whose agendas find support in a non-negligible share of the population.

Continued: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01225-3/fulltext

USA – Women seeking medication abortions face increasing state restrictions as FDA weighs action

“Over the past year, we've seen states really target medication abortion in a way that we hadn't seen," Elizabeth Nash, of the Guttmacher Institute, said.

July 31, 2021
By Rebecca Shabad

WASHINGTON — The coronavirus had started to shut much of the country down in March 2020 when Larada Lee found out she was six weeks pregnant.

She wanted to end her pregnancy and decided that instead of a surgical abortion, she would use medication, a process she could complete at home. This, she thought, was her best chance of limiting her exposure to Covid-19.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/women-seeking-medication-abortions-face-increasing-state-restrictions-fda-weighs-n1275199

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/

USA – 2021 Is on Track to Become the Most Devastating Antiabortion State Legislative Session in Decades

Elizabeth Nash, Guttmacher Institute
Lauren Cross, Guttmacher Institute
First published online: April 30, 2021

Right-wing ideologues are engaging in a shock and awe campaign against abortion rights that is largely getting lost against the background of a broader attack on other basic rights, including a wave of voter suppression laws and attacks on LGBTQ people.

The number of
abortion restrictions—and specifically bans on abortion designed to directly
challenge Roe v. Wade and the U.S. constitutional right to abortion—that have
swiftly been enacted over the past four months is unprecedented. If this trend
continues, 2021 will end up as the most damaging antiabortion state legislative
session in a decade—and perhaps ever.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/04/2021-track-become-most-devastating-antiabortion-state-legislative-session-decades

USA – Access to medication abortions via telehealth varies by state and here’s why

By: Chloe Nordquist
Apr 23, 2021

Telehealth is becoming a bigger part of our lives. Those visits are also being used for abortions, but the rules vary from state to state, and even federally.

“Back in March of last year in 2020, at the
height of the pandemic, I found out I was pregnant in the state of Ohio,”
Larada Lee explained.

Continued: https://www.newschannel5.com/news/national/access-to-medication-abortions-via-telehealth-varies-by-state-and-heres-why