Case Closed! The FDA Has Determined That Mifepristone Is Safe And Effective
Protest outside US Supreme Court as justices heard mifepristone restriction case on March 26, 2024
The Supreme Court has just restored a woman's ability to obtain the abortion pill by mail without first seeing a medical provider, at least for now. A lower court had tried to tighten that easy access by requiring patients to consult with a licensed clinician in person before acquiring the drug, mifepristone.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute is an anti-abortion organization that purports to provide scientific research for the "pro-life" movement. Among the risks of loosening restrictions on being given the abortion pill, it writes, is that it enables fathers who don't want a child to trick a woman into ending a pregnancy she intends to continue.
The dark scenario goes that a father (or others) could obtain abortion pills through the mail and slip them into a pregnant patient's food or drink. This has happened.
There was a case in Texas in which a man gave his pregnant girlfriend mifepristone-laced cookies to induce an abortion. He was charged with capital murder. Not surprisingly, there have been similar incidents.
But all kinds of drugs can be misused. Over-the-counter medications can lead to coma or death, especially when mixed with alcohol. They include painkillers, flu medications and antihistamines. No one is demanding that people see a doctor before taking aspirin.
Meanwhile, several prescribed drugs have been used to illegally end a pregnancy. In a recent Iowa case, a woman allegedly slipped oxycodone into the lasagna she had prepared and delivered to an expectant mother to cause a miscarriage. Though oxycodone is often addictive, the courts have not banned the opioid, which is used to control severe pain.
Prescription drugs have a long history of being used to commit other crimes. In a 2011 Albuquerque case, a waiter allegedly spiked a glass of wine with Valium and served it to a woman he was interested in. The woman blacked out. The waiter had been asking the woman for her address and phone number, according to the target's friends. The waiter was charged with distributing a controlled substance and aggravated battery. A New Mexico state court dismissed the charges because prosecutors took too long to bring the defendant to trial.
The Justice Department has long classified ketamine as a "club drug." It is prized for creating a dreamlike feeling of being detached from one's body and surroundings. It also serves as a "knockout drug" that leaves users vulnerable to such crimes as robbery or rape.
In 2021, a Utah man was accused of allegedly serving hot chocolate spiked with ketamine to a woman and her young teenage daughter. He was subsequently charged with three felony counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
The Lozier Institute seeks to put a roadblock in the ability to end a pregnancy. It is within its rights to make its case, but it is obvious that reducing access to abortions, not advancing women's health, is the motive here.
The Food and Drug Administration and leading medical societies have determined that serious complications caused by mifepristone are rare. Meanwhile, an analysis published by the JAMA Network found that the risk of death from giving birth, though low, is still many times higher than that from a legal abortion.
Medication is now used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the United States. And it is almost always used very early in the pregnancy, in the first 12 weeks.
The Lozier Institute holds that requiring in-person pill dispensing and follow-up visits to a medical practitioner is "necessary to protect women's health and freedom." There may be benefits to seeing a doctor, but it's unclear how making it harder to obtain mifepristone would protect a woman's "freedom."
Quite the opposite, it would seem.
Froma Harrop is an award winning journalist who covers politics, economics and culture. She has worked on the Reuters business desk, edited economics reports for The New York Times News Service and served on the Providence Journal editorial board.
Reprinted with permission from Creators.
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- Appeals court limits abortion pill access nationwide - The Washington Post ›
- Court restricts abortion access across the US by blocking the mailing of mifepristone ›
- What to know about a mifepristone maker asking the Supreme Court to restore access to the pill by mail | PBS News ›
- US Supreme Court asked to restore abortion pill access ›
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