FDA rules to permanently allow abortion pills to be sent by mail

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When I heard that the FDA had ruled that abortion pills could be sent by mail from now on I was elated. This was set up at the beginning of the pandemic to allow telehealth visits for abortion and has been made permanent. I didn’t realize that this meant that they could only be sent to states where abortion is still legal up until 10 weeks. Plus they can’t be used in the 19 states which have banned telemedicine for abortion care. Still it’s refreshing that the FDA is trying to preserve basic healthcare. They made this ruling late last week.

Americans can permanently get abortion pills by mail from now on, the Food and Drug Administration decided Thursday, after lifting a restriction that required abortion seekers to get the pills in person from a physician.

The decision immediately makes permanent the system that was set up at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to allow patients to get abortion pills after a telemedicine visit rather than going to a doctor’s office. It also extends the availability of abortions as the Supreme Court looks likely to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortions legal across the United States.

With abortion pills, patients can undergo a medical abortion at their homes up through 10 weeks of pregnancy. The first take the drug mifepristone, which stops pregnancy from continuing, and then up to 48 hours later take misoprostol, which causes uterine contractions. In combination, the two end the pregnancy.

Although the FDA is allowing the abortion pills to be sent by mail, 19 states have already banned telemedicine visits for abortions, making it illegal for residents to receive the pills by mail, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Five states, including Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, have outright bans on using telemedicine for abortion pills, while the other 14 — which includes Texas, Mississippi and Alabama — require patients to be in person with a physician to get them.

The decision also does not change the limits on abortion in states like Texas, which has banned the procedure after more than six weeks of pregnancy.

[From People]

In the summer of 2019 I attended a talk by an ACLU lawyer about abortion rights in my state, Virginia. She explained that there were restrictions that only doctors could write these prescriptions in person, meaning that physicians assistants and nurse practitioners were prohibited from writing the prescriptions unlike with other medications. Thankfully telehealth visits were allowed for abortion in Virginia a few months ago. Prescription abortion medication has less than a 1% complication rate and is used for 96% of abortions. I hope that this provides greater access to healthcare throughout the US and that it’s also used as a workaround for those in states with abortion restrictions.

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