Conservative states plan to institute bans, if they haven’t already
Mifeprex, the first of two drugs taken during a medication abortion. Photo: James Worrell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock As of yesterday, abortion pills will be available by mail nationwide — at least in states without specific bans in place. On December 16, the Food and Drug Administration lifted a long-standing requirement that the medications must be procured directly from a provider.
Medication abortion is authorized up to ten weeks into pregnancy, which is when the majority of abortions occur anyway. In 2019, the most recent year for which CDC data is available, just under 93 percent of nationally reported procedures took place in the first trimester . That same year, over 42 percent of all reported abortions in the U.S. were medication abortions.
Although the complication rate for medication abortion is very low , the FDA classed Mifeprex in its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program in 2011, a designation for “certain medications with serious safety concerns.” That meant Mifeprex had to come directly from a clinic, hospital, or doctor. But earlier this year, the Biden administration waived that requirement for the duration of the pandemic.
Still, 19 states require a clinician to be physically present when a patient takes the first pill. Additionally, the Guttmacher Institute’s Elizabeth Nash told the New York Times that, just this year, six states have prohibited pills by mail, seven have introduced requirements obligating patients to get them from a doctor, and four have narrowed the window in which medication abortion is available.
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to reconsider the terms set by Roe v. Wade, the provision of medication abortion by mail becomes crucially important: Were the Court to reset the deadline for legal abortion at 15 weeks, for example — nearly two months earlier than the current viability standard — prospective patients would have to navigate more hurdles in a shorter time period if they wanted to access abortion in person.
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