FDA faces critical decision: Should abortion pills be easier to get?

Prior to COVID-19, patients could get mifepristone only from a certified prescriber in person at a hospital, clinic or physician’s office; the restriction also prohibited retail pharmacies from stocking and dispensing the medication. Lifting this in-person restriction during the pandemic was important because it allowed for certified prescribers to submit a prescription for medication abortion to mail-order pharmacies. Those pharmacies then delivered the pills directly to a patient’s home where, usually following a telehealth consultation, they could undergo an abortion from the safety and privacy of their own home.

Currently, the FDA approves the safe use of mifepristone for abortion up until the 10th week of pregnancy. The mifepristone REMS include three specific requirements, known as Elements to Assure Safe Use (ETASU), that providers register as certified prescribers in order to authorize abortion pills, patients need to sign a patient agreement and other consent forms before receiving the pills, and (the one lifted amid the pandemic) mifepristone cannot be dispensed from a pharmacy, meaning it has to be obtained in person.

Permanently lifting one or all of these restrictions would have a huge impact on access to abortion in the U.S.