(The Washington Examiner) Government regulation of the chemical abortion pill has changed dramatically in recent weeks. Last month, a federal judge ruled that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, an abortion provider should not have to require that a pregnant woman be seen in person by medical staff in order to obtain abortion drugs to end the life of her preborn child. Even though it was the abortion industry challenging this existing regulation – not patients – the ruling by Maryland U.S. district judge Theodore D. Chuang stated that the “in-person requirements” posed a “substantial obstacle” to women seeking abortions. As a result, the ruling allows abortion businesses to sell abortion pills directly to pregnant women without any in-person evaluation.
Expanding access to chemical abortion pills was an important goal for the abortion industry even ere the pandemic. In 2017, the ACLU filed a lawsuit to make abortion pills available without a visit to the doctor. In 2008, telemed abortions became available in Iowa. During a telemed abortion, women obtain abortion pills after interacting with a physician remotely. As of 2019, Planned Parenthood was offering telemed abortions in 10 states.
READ: The federal government must stop the deadly abortion pill
Indeed, during the past 20 years, the abortion pill has become more common in the United States. Even though the overall U.S. abortion rate has been declining, the number of chemical abortions are increasing. According to the most recent data from the Guttmacher Institute, the number of chemical abortions committed in the United States increased by over 400 percent between 2001 and 2017. Furthermore, the share of abortions committed with the abortion pill regimen increased from 5 percent to 39 percent between 2001 and 2018.
However, despite this significant increase in the number of chemical abortions, there has been a profound lack of oversight for this lethal drug….
Continue reading full article at The Washington Examiner.
Editor’s Note: This article was published at The Washington Examiner and is partially reprinted here with permission.
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