Dear Friends,

On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded availability of chemical abortion by allowing pharmacies to dispense abortion pills. For the first time, retail pharmacies, from corner drugstores to major chains like CVS and Walgreens, will be allowed to offer abortion pills in states where abortion is legal.

Previously, mifepristone – the first pill used in the two-drug chemical abortion regimen — could be dispensed by only specially certified physicians or clinics and a few mail-order pharmacies.

Under the new FDA rules, patients will still need a prescription from a certified health care provider, but any retail pharmacy that completes a certification process can dispense the pills. The change will expand access at both brick-and-mortar and online pharmacies.

The FDA did not issue an announcement but updated its website about the decision. 

The change reflects the Biden Administrations’s vow to do everything in its power to advance and expand abortion rights— a pledge that rigorously intensified after the overturning of Roe.

DANGEROUS COMPLICATIONS 

Dangerous complications from chemical abortions occur at a much higher rate than surgical abortions, including incomplete abortion, future miscarriage and stillbirth, excessive bleeding, and hemorrhaging and death from undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy. In response to Tuesday’s FDA action, Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America noted: “Studies have found that chemical abortion has four times the complication rate of surgical abortion, and these risks only increase with advanced pregnancy and lack of medical supervision.”

CHEMICAL ABORTION SURGE

In December 2021, the FDA lifted its long-standing safety protocol requirement for women seeking abortion pills to have an in-person doctor visit. With the stroke of a pen, the federal government removed 22 years of medical standard of care that required a woman to have an in-person medical examination to confirm the existence of a pregnancy and the stage of the fetal development prior to being prescribed chemical abortion pills which are designed for pregnancies less than 12 weeks in development. The lifting of this restriction allowed a woman to have a telemedicine appointment and receive her abortion pills in the mail to terminate her pregnancy and end the life of her unborn baby in her home without a doctor’s supervision. A disturbingly upward trajectory in the number of chemical abortions in our country and in Texas followed. As Council for Life reported Monday, surgical abortions are down but chemical abortions have spiked since the fall of Roe and now constitute over half of the abortions in our country. 

Thankfully, any abortion including chemical abortion is illegal under Texas’ Trigger Law in effect after the Dobbs decision so the provision of abortion pills in Texas is not permitted regardless of the newest FDA change. Even without our Trigger Law banning all abortions, the FDA directive still would not affect Texas since the Texas Legislature recognized the troubling trend of increased chemical abortions and passed Senate Bill 4 (SB4) in 2021. SB4 prohibits chemical abortions by mail or delivery service and requires an in-person examination by a physician.

Unfortunately as also reported by CFL, the availability of chemical abortion pills on the internet is widespread and difficult to monitor, thereby providing ample opportunity to circumvent state abortion laws.

WHAT HAPPENS IN A CHEMICAL ABORTION?

In a chemical abortion, the first drug mifepristone blocks the natural hormone progesterone, causing the developing baby to die from lack of vital nutrients. The second drug misoprostol induces powerful uterine contractions to expel the deceased baby from the womb. Often times the woman is alone and sees and holds her deceased baby who has been expelled from her womb. She then has the highly upsetting task of disposing of the body of her baby, usually into the toilet. Unlike a surgical abortion, chemical abortion effectively transforms the mother into the abortionist, and she is likely to undergo serious post trauma from the experience. 

PRAYER NEEDED