Shift in regulations on medication abortion especially significant for rural women

Sarah McCammon reported for NPR yesterday on a likely move by the Food and Drug Administration today regarding the drug mifepristone, which induces abortion.  About 40% of patients seeking abortion do so with pills instead of a surgical procedure, making the availability of this drug important.  At stake in particular is whether the abortion pills can be prescribed via telemedicine and made available by mail.  

An excerpt from McCammon's story follows, including a nod to rural women. 

Before the pandemic, doctors like Nisha Verma could only prescribe abortion pills to patients who came to her clinic in person. But at least for now, the Biden Administration is allowing patients to get the pills by mail.

"I think that makes it much more accessible for people where they don't actually have to physically come into a clinic, they don't have to expose themselves to COVID, they can do this all from the comfort of their home," said Verma, an OBGYN and abortion provider based in Washington, D.C.

Last year, reproductive rights groups successfully sued to suspend the in-person dispensing rule, arguing it exposed patients to unnecessary risk from COVID-19. The Trump Administration fought that decision to the Supreme Court, which allowed the rule to be reinstated. Then, the Biden Administration stepped in this April to once again allow patients to receive the abortion pills by mail during the pandemic.

Verma said this mail option has been particularly helpful for women in rural areas far from the nearest clinic.

Now, the Food and Drug Administration faces a Thursday deadline to complete a review that could lead to removing several restrictions on the pill, including making this easier access permanent.

Scholarly discussions of medication abortion in relation to rural women are here and here.   

Postscript:  Here's a story on how the FDS's regulation of medication abortion shifted on December 16, 2021.  An excerpt from that story follows--specifically a caption to a photo: 

Lifting the restrictions on mifepristone would make medication abortion more accessible, but in 19 states that have already banned telemedicine visits for abortion pills, women would probably need to travel to states that allow it.