Supreme Court upholds anti-abortion law in Texas 2:17
(CNN Spanish) -
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA, for its acronym in English) announced this Thursday that it will permanently withdraw the requirement that patients collect abortion pills in person, leaving in force a temporary permit to receive them. by mail.
The requirement had been temporarily dropped by the pandemic, allowing patients to receive the pills by mail.
The FDA still maintains some regulations that reproductive rights groups hoped would be removed.
US Supreme Court Leaves Texas Abortion Law Standing But Says Abortion Rights Defenders Can Sue
The FDA maintains the requirement that abortion patients sign an additional form to receive abortion medication.
It also continues to require doctors to pre-register with a drug manufacturer before they can prescribe it.
Medication termination of pregnancy, also known as medical abortion, is a method of ending a pregnancy by taking two pills, rather than with surgery.
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Concern about Texas anti-abortion law in the Supreme Court 3:27
The pills can be taken immediately after someone knows they are pregnant and can then be given up to 10 weeks after the first day of the person's last menstrual period.
The FDA first approved the drug mifepristone - when it was combined with the drug misoprostol - for abortion in 2000. In 2016, the FDA approved a supplemental application from the company that made Mifeprex that changed the drug's regimen and label.
Unlike most drugs that can be picked up at the pharmacy, only a certified healthcare provider can order, prescribe, and dispense them.
In these countries abortion is legal (and in these others it is not allowed under any circumstances)
Since 2011, the drug comes from a restricted program called the Mifepristone Shared REMS Program.
REMS stands for Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, a program used by the FDA for specific drugs to make sure the benefit outweighs the risk of the drug.
In general, the drugs included in this program are associated with complications or contraindications.
In April, the FDA allowed the pills to be mailed during the pandemic and said it would no longer enforce a rule that required women to obtain the first of the two pills in person at a clinic or hospital.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and several other medical associations have long advocated for the removal of restrictions on how medications are administered.
The restrictions, the organization argued, "do not make care safer, are not based on tests or medical needs, and create barriers to medical abortion for doctors and patients."
A growing number of people have been using this abortion option since its approval.
An estimated 60% of people chose this method within the first 10 weeks of their pregnancy, according to a 2017 study from the Guttmacher Institute.
