FDA says pharmacies can sell abortion pills

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Jan. 3 approved a plan to allow retail pharmacies to distribute abortion pills.

The FDA’s decision enables FDA-certified pharmacies for the first time to carry and dispense mifepristone, the first drug in a two-step process commonly referred to as medical or chemical abortion.

Women also will continue to be able to receive the pills by mail.

Medical/chemical procedures as a percentage of all abortions have increased from 5% to 53% over the past two decades, the Guttmacher Institute reported Dec. 1.

In a newly updated page on its website, the FDA said mifepristone is safe but also acknowledged 28 reported deaths of women who took mifepristone between 2000 and 2022.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Read more on this story at Baptist Press, news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.