Ten states join fight against loosening FDA restrictions on the abortion pill

(Life Site News) Ten states are supporting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s restrictions on access to the abortion pill, which are currently being challenged in court by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and other groups.

Indiana, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma wrote in their motion to intervene that they “have a strong interest in protecting their citizens from the health and safety consequences that may result from unsupervised administration of mifepristone.”

A motion to intervene is filed by an entity in order to become a party to a lawsuit, which is generally limited to plaintiffs (in this case, ACOG) and defendants (the FDA). The entity filing the motion to intervene must have an interest in the lawsuit. Here, the 10 states have their own laws regarding the use of mifepristone, which has to be “dispensed in person.”

Mifepristone is the drug otherwise known as the abortion pill.

According to the 10 states, “Mifepristone can have serious complications, including hemorrhaging, infection, and even death. These complications can be exacerbated if the physician does not perform an in-person examination. An in-person meeting also facilitates informed consent and prevents the diversion of drugs and mitigates the possibility of complications, which may in turn yield Medicaid claims.”

1st Trimester Medical Abortion: Abortion Pills

In a memorandum to go with the motion to intervene, the states explained in more detail that “Mifepristone is a dangerous and life-altering drug that ends the life of a growing fetus inside a woman’s uterus.”

ACOG had filed a complaint over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy “to subject mifepristone (brand name Mifeprex), one of two FDA-approved prescription drugs used in combination to end an early pregnancy or to manage a miscarriage, to a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (‘REMS’) that mandates unnecessary travel and personal interactions, jeopardizing the health and lives of patients and clinicians.”

The plaintiffs used the fact that the coronavirus pandemic led to what they claim is “a massive, nationwide effort to meet patients’ medical needs without unnecessary travel and in-person interactions that facilitate viral spread” to demand easier access to the abortion pill.

The lawsuit echoed claims made in a letter signed by 21 state attorneys general who wrote to FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn on March 30 “to request that you increase access to reproductive health care, including safe and legal abortion, during this pandemic.”

READ: Activists push for taxpayer-funded international abortions amid COVID-19 pandemic

“[We] urge you to waive its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), or use FDA enforcement discretion, to allow certified prescribers to use telehealth for Mifepristone, the medication abortion prescription drug,” the attorneys general, including those of California and New York, continued.

On April 14, 159 members of Congress responded by sending a letter to Hahn, asking him “to continue to robustly enforce” REMS for the abortion pill.

“The FDA has approved chemical abortion for use up to 10 weeks’ gestation, but due to the attendant risks to the mother, FDA requires that only a certified prescriber dispense the drugs after confirming the gestational age, ruling out ectopic pregnancy, and that the woman herself sign and retain a copy of the prescribers agreement,” the pro-life legislators pointed out.

Abortion Pill Trial Shirks FDA Safeguards

The term “ectopic pregnancy” refers to an embryo attaching outside the uterus.

The letter added, “The involvement of a physician or other certified prescriber, who knows the state of a woman’s pregnancy and health, is critical for patient safety.”

On May 4, pro-life leaders called on the FDA to seize websites of abortionists who are illegally offering abortion pills online in order “to protect women from the distributers of abortion-inducing drugs who place lives at risk by circumventing your agency’s regulatory safeguards.”

The letter was signed, among others, by Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List; Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America; Lila Rose, president of Live Action; Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life; and Jeanne Mancini, who is the organizer of the yearly March for Life in the nation’s capital.

The pro-life leaders summarized how abortion pills are used.

“Mifeprex (or its recently-approved generic), used in combination with misoprostol, is the only FDA-approved regimen for drug-induced abortion. Mifeprex is subject to a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), which, as stated in the warning letters, ‘is intended to mitigate the risk of serious complications associated with Mifeprex.’ Further, ‘[c]onsistent with the REMS, Mifeprex is not sold through retail pharmacies or over the internet.”

The members of Congress, in their letter, listed several dangers associated with medical abortions.

READ: World Health Organization: Abortion is ‘essential’ during coronavirus pandemic

Research proves, they pointed out, “that as many as five to seven percent of women who take abortion drugs will require follow-up surgery, and three percent could end up in the emergency room.”

“Self-managed abortions from home are especially dangerous; in fact, half of abortion providers do not consider them safe,” they explained.

Unbeknownst to many, chemical abortions are actually reversible for a short period of time. Once a woman has taken the first abortion pill, there is still a chance her baby can be saved.

Can the ABORTION PILL be REVERSED?

The Charlotte Lozier Institute explained the abortion pill reversal procedure, which is simple and safe, in an infographic.

The medical abortion is committed by taking mifepristone, followed by misoprostol 24 to 72 hours later. “Mifepristone is a progesterone receptor blocker which causes separation of the placenta from the uterus which leads to the death of the embryo or fetus. The misoprostol causes the uterus to contract and expel the remains of the child.”

To reverse the medical abortion, women take progesterone, orally or as an injection, “as soon as possible after taking the mifepristone but before taking the misoprostol.”

An entire website is dedicated to helping women with an abortion pill reversal.

Editor’s Note: This article was published at Life Site News and is reprinted here with permission.

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