As Medication Abortion Becomes Dominant, Red States Restrict Pills

[appalachiablue]

- NPR, March 29, 2022.

For most of the almost 50 years since the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion nationwide, clinics have been the focus of the battle over abortion rights. Protesters gather outside on sidewalks. And Republican state lawmakers try to regulate what happens inside — through laws restricting which healthcare providers can perform abortions, the kind of counseling required and which procedures are allowed.

But now, more than half of abortions are taking place with pills. "For a lot of people, having the option of having an abortion in the privacy and comfort of their own home is appealing," said Rachel K. Jones, a research scientist with the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.

According to data released by Guttmacher earlier this year, abortion pills – not surgical procedures – accounted for 54 percent of abortions in 2020. That makes medication abortion the dominant choice in the United States for the first time since the Food and Drug Administration approved an abortion pill, mifepristone, more than 20 years ago. It's part of a two-drug protocol approved to terminate pregnancies up to 10 weeks gestation. That protocol also is prescribed to manage some miscarriages.

During the pandemic, the FDA relaxed rules so that the tightly regulated drug mifepristone could be obtained through telehealth appointments and mail-order pharmacies, rather than in person. That made it easier for patients in some states to get a medication abortion at home. The Biden administration recently made those changes permanent. Now, Republican lawmakers in several states are pushing back...

- More, https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1089290488/as-medication-abortion-becomes-dominant-red-states-restrict-pills

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. The sentences below get to the core issue:

Ushma Upadhyay, a reproductive health researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, warned that if states try to block access to abortion pills, patients will find them online without a doctor's help.

"That is what I'm concerned about," she said. "It is extremely safe, but all patients should have the access to clinical support if they need it, if they have questions about how to take it, or whether what's happening is normal."

Goddamn male so-called lawmakers. They really piss me off

[appalachiablue]

2. Tx for posting, the interference will create hazards. It's tragic.