FDA Medical Abortion: Federal Drug Administration Makes Access To Abortion Pills Like ‘MifePrex’ Easier Than Ever

The FDA has loosened its requirements for women to obtain abortion inducing medication.

According to the Independent, medical abortion access will become easier for women in a movement that is being viewed as a monumental win for pro-choice advocates.

The FDA has eased back on their restrictions for obtaining medical abortion pills, which should make it easier for women to have better access to abortion drugs.

Abortion medicine, like Mifepristone — a popular medical abortion pill — for instance, required doctors to follow the FDA instructions on the label according to laws in states like Texas, Ohio, and North Dakota, for administering an abortion treatment.

US regulators ease label requirements on #abortion pill https://t.co/oPPZzsVuL2 pic.twitter.com/6N63lxGHvk

— The Straits Times (@straits_times) March 30, 2016

The Washington Times reports that the medical abortion drug Mifepristone, in accordance with misoprostol, was first approved by the FDA in 2000. The medical abortion-inducing pills induce miscarriage.

In these states in particular, doctors have a proclivity to adhere to the more rigid guidelines for administering medical abortion pills. This makes it substantially harder for women to obtain medical abortion medication in some states.

According to the Washington Times, some other FDA changes include for handling medical abortion include changing the recommended dosage to 70 days into pregnancy. This time frame is now nearly a month longer than the original time frame for medical abortion.

Medical practitioner guidelines for medical abortion were also changed by the FDA. Another change by the FDA is the permission to allow nurses to administer medical abortion drugs instead of consulting with a doctor in addition.

The FDA now requires women to visit their doctor, during the medical abortion process, only two times instead of three.

The dosage has also been reduced by the FDA for medical abortion pills while increasing the number of days to take the pills.

Executive director of Preterm, Chrisse France, an abortion provider in Ohio, said the following.

“The label change for medication abortion will mean that it will once again be a real option for Preterm’s patients and women across the state. We will no longer be forced to practice medicine mandated by politicians whose ultimate goal is to shut us down.”

The FDA’s exact changes can be viewed on a PDF of the abortion medication’s label on the FDA website. The recent updates are listed below.

• Boxed Warning
• Indications and Usage
• Dosage and Administration, Dosing Regimen
• Dosage and Administration, Post-treatment Assessment: Day 7 to 14
• Warnings and Precautions, MIFEPREX REMS Program
• Warnings and Precautions, Ectopic Pregnancy

However, anti-abortion groups still expressed their dissent for the FDA’s new rules for medical abortion pill administration.

They noted that the new label still contains the old label’s warning regarding dangerous side effects like infection or even death.

They argue that FDA’s medical abortion law change will only put more women in danger if access to abortion pills become ever more ubiquitous and easy to obtain.

First approved by the FDA in 2000, mifepristone works with another drug, called misoprostol, to induce miscarriage. The rules on the medication label were based on trials dating back to the 1990s and more recent research shows that lower doses are a better option, the Times reported.

The FDA change means that the labels on mifepristone will now contain the new requirements. Doctors in most states were already giving women the medically accepted dosage, but some states had laws binding doctors to labeled instructions.

The FDA also announced that these new medical abortion changes are effective immediately.

What do you think of the FDA’s new medical abortion law changes?

[Photo by Bill Greenblatt/Getty Images]