Several states are moving to ban or limit medication abortions, which have risen during COVID-19 due to more “virtual care.”
“No woman deserves to be subjected to the gruesome process of a chemical abortion, potentially hours away from the physician who prescribed her the drugs,” Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, told the Associated Press.
About 40% of all abortions in the U.S. are attributed to medication abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
Ohio Senate Bill 260, signed into law in January by Gov. Mike DeWine, was set to go in effect April 12, but currently has a preliminary injunction blocking it. That bill proposed felony charges for doctors who provided medication abortion through telemedicine.
DeWine issued an executive order April 5 allowing for the emergency adoption of the Unborn Child Dignity Act, a bill that would allow for the burial or cremation of babies that were previously being thrown in the trash.
FDA approved
The Food and Drug Administration approved medication abortion in 2000 with the introduction of mifepristone, previously referred to as RU-486. An abortion through medication consists of a two-pill protocol, mifepristone and misoprostol.
Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, causing the lining of the uterus to thin, preventing the embryo from staying implanted and growing. Within 48 hours, the drug misoprostol is taken, causing the uterus to contract and expel the fetus and placenta. Medication abortion is provided up to 10 weeks’ gestation.
Montana state Rep. Sharon Greef, who sponsored a bill calling for tighter regulation of medication abortions in her state, called this type of abortion “the Wild West of the abortion industry.”
She stressed that these powerful drugs should be monitored by medical professionals, “not as part of a do-it-yourself abortion far from a clinic or hospital.”
Planned Parenthood runs five of Montana’s seven abortion clinics. The state has seen the number of abortions through medication rise to 75%.
On April 26, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed several laws restricting abortions, including a ban on those via telemedicine. Many states have taken similar actions.
A report from Planned Parenthood indicated that since 2019, medication abortions and bans have tripled; pro-life constitutional amendments have more than tripled; and 12 abortion restrictions have been enacted this year.
According to Guttmacher, 61 of the 536 total pro-life laws introduced in states across the country since January became law as of April 29.
Lighter restrictions
Federal restrictions on abortion-inducing medications were eased by the FDA under federal court order during the pandemic.
Telemedicine makes it difficult to ban medication abortions entirely, however.
“A patient in a state that does not dispense the abortion pill via telemedicine could have a virtual appointment with a doctor in another state who prescribes the pill,” said Catherine Parks in an article on the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s website.
Studies have shown that while the number of abortions has declined since 2001, the number of medication abortions has risen steadily.
Pro-life advocates are hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court, now with a 6–3 conservative majority, will soon consider overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision, which legalized abortion in the U.S.
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