Culture and Social Issues

FDA Clears Path For Abortion Pills At Pharmacies

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow pharmacies to dispense the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone, the agency announced Tuesday.

The FDA previously only allowed certain mail-order pharmacies to dispense the drugs under a pandemic-related rule change, and prior to that, medical professionals had to dispense the pills to women directly, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Under the new rules, pharmacies can fill out a short application to become certified to provide chemical abortion pills, according to the FDA.

“Eliminating medically unnecessary restrictions on medication abortion is critical for improving access,” Planned Parenthood wrote in response to the news.

The pills still won’t be available through pharmacies in 12 states that ban abortion or in the 18 states that require a physician to be physically present to prescribe a patient abortion pills, according to the WSJ.

Pro-life advocates have warned that easier access to abortion pills without medical supervision can put women at increased risk of adverse events.

Mifepristone does not treat ectopic pregnancies, and women with undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies may not seek treatment in time and risk hemorrhaging and death, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Women who miscalculate gestational age and undergo chemical abortions later in their pregnancy than intended are at a higher risk of requiring surgery and of developing an infection.

“The Biden administration has once again proved that it values abortion industry profits over women’s safety and unborn children’s lives … even while studies show emergency rooms are being flooded with women suffering from serious, life-threatening complications caused by abortion drugs,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. “Chemical abortion pills can cause dangerous complications including hemorrhage and infection, and complications are more likely when pills are dispensed without medical screening or follow-up care.

Big news today! We applaud the FDA’s important step forward.

Eliminating medically unnecessary restrictions on medication abortion is critical for improving access.https://t.co/hCDftSg6fl

— Planned Parenthood (@PPFA) January 4, 2023

Abortions pills have come to the forefront of the abortion debate since the June 24 overturning of Roe v. Wade, which cleared the way for states to implement restrictions on abortion. Some doctors have been prescribing abortion pills to patients who are not pregnant as an advanced measure in defiance of the FDA’s recommendations, and pharmaceutical vendors have flooded the online market with illegal, unregulated abortion pills.

The FDA did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.