We Won’t Give Up!
By Michele Gomez
This is the perfect article to learn more about the forward momentum of medication abortions in the U.S.! The article explains the restrictions that were initially put on Mifepristone (the first pill taken for a medication abortion) when it was approved by the FDA way back in 2000. The most important restriction was that the pill had to be “dispensed in clinics, medical offices, and hospitals” (rather than dispensed in pharmacies like almost all other prescribed medications!)
After the pandemic hit, a federal judge recognized that it would be safer to mail mifepristone than to require people to go into “clinics, medical offices, and hospitals” in order to reduce in person traffic and unneeded exposure during COVID, so he made it legal to do so. After this change in the law, many clinicians started mailing Mifepristone and setting up new organizations to provide this important health care to patients!
However, six months later, on January 12, 2021, the Supreme Court ruled to reinstate the previous restriction on Mifepristone, and now the “old rules” are back in place (requiring patients to make unnecessary trips to their healthcare provider to pick up the pills in person). This is a well-written article that describes how politics won over a true concern for health care, but only temporarily. Many clinicians and activists are still fighting to remove the medically-unnecessary “in clinic” rule for Mifepristone!
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