FDA v. Doctors Protecting Women from Chemical Abortion

 

On March 26th the Supreme Court of the United States will take up the issue of abortion pills and the risk they pose to women. 

Available since 2000, with no clinical trials whatsoever, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and, more recently, the Biden Administration, have loosened access to these abortion pills over the years in ways that do not protect women, but rather harm us in reckless ways.

 

Originally, abortion pills (mifepristone which inhibits implantation and stops embryo growth, and misoprostol which causes cramping and bleeding to evacuate the uterus) could only be administered by a doctor during an in-person visit to determine the gestational age of the baby and the health of the mother. This is a chemical form of abortion. In order to safeguard a woman’s health through the medical abortion, the regimen required a second visit 3 days later and a final examination 14 days after that. These visits guarded against too much bleeding, sepsis, or other consequences of the pills. Since 2016 the FDA has been eliminating these safeguards.

 

In 2016, the FDA eliminated the requirement that doctors provide follow-up visits on the 3rd and 14th days. They also eliminated the requirement that only doctors could prescribe abortion pills.

 

In 2021, the FDA used COVID to justify radical changes to these rules again. They removed all in-person examination requirements, permitting abortion pills to be mailed to patients regardless of what state they lived in and what their state laws said about the legality of abortion.

 

All of these changes have put women’s health at greater risk than ever, and simultaneously further empower sex abusers and sex traffickers by allowing them to cover up the consequences of their crimes – consequences that are compounded for their victims through chemical abortions they experience alone and often with great trauma.

 

The High Court will examine these concerns in the lawsuit brought by doctors challenging the FDA rules, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, and argued by Regent Law’s own faculty member, Erin Hawley. Chemical abortion through the mail is detrimental to women, child, and family restoration.