The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) eased restrictions on mifepristone, a drug approved for use to terminate pregnancies of up to ten weeks. As a result of the new regulations, many patients will not need to go to a clinic, medical office or hospital in person to receive the medication, but can opt to receive the pill through the mail from a certified prescriber or pharmacy. The restrictions on the pill requiring women to go in person had been in place since the FDA approved the drug in 2000 and were lifted temporarily by the government earlier this year due to the pandemic. The change is now permanent. 

19 states including Texas have laws that supersede the FDA decision by barring telehealth consultations or mailing of abortion pills. Women in those states would not be able to make use of the rule change at home but could potentially travel to other states to obtain medication abortion.

States such as California and New York that have sought to strengthen access to abortion may make the drug available to women from other states.

Opponents to the new regulations like the Charlotte Lozier Institute and Susan B. Anthony List claim that the FDA decision ignored data on complications and put women at risk.

FDA records show that of the 3.7 million women who took Mifeprex, the branded version of the drug, to terminate a pregnancy between September 2000 and December 2018, 24 died from complications. Currently, 5-8% of women taking the abortion pill end up in the emergency room. This amounts to up to 27,000 women a year. 

Medication abortion involves two drugs, taken over a day or two. The first, mifepristone, blocks the pregnancy-sustaining hormone progesterone. The second, misoprostol, induces uterine contractions. Nearly 40% of all abortions in the U.S. are now done through medication

Advocates, such as the ACLU, criticized the FDA for leaving in place some restrictions such as the need to use a certified pharmacy and requiring the prescribers to be certified.

It is important to note that French scientist Dr. Etienne-Emile Baulieu who invented the pill was quoted in a 2013 book by pro-abortion author Miriam Claire that using the drug in this manner was dangerous. 

“About 5 in 1000 pregnancies (0.5%) are ectopic” Baulieu said. “If ectopic pregnancy is not detected, the woman goes through a disaster, regardless of whether or not she uses RU-486 [the abortion pill], because it will rupture with heavy internal hemorrhaging…This is why I insist that a woman should be medically examined if she wants an abortion of any kind, surgical or medical. Ectopic pregnancy presents a great risk.”

Baulieu stated that the only way to rule out a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy is by examining the woman via an ultrasound.Two blood tests to measure pregnancy hormones, performed 48 hours apart, can also detect an ectopic pregnancy.

It has also been found that abortion providers are failing to abide by the ten-week limit. Planned Parenthood’s website advertises using the pill up to 11 weeks at which point the failure rate jumps to 13% — nearly double the failure rate for the abortion pill given just two weeks earlier.