Last summer, U.S. President Joe Biden criticized states for trying to limit access to abortion pills. In response, Biden directed the Food and Drug Administration to protect access, saying “extremist governors and state legislatures” were “trying to block mail or Raiding a man’s medicine cabinet or controlling a woman’s behavior by tracking data from the apps she uses” is “wrong” and “out of touch” with “most Americans.” Now, the FDA has taken its biggest step yet, expanding access to abortion by allowing retail pharmacies to sell the drug by mail order or at pharmacies.
Previously, mifepristone was only available in certain clinics and doctor for sale. But now, under new FDA rules, all pharmacies that want to sell abortion pills need only hire one employee dedicated to ensuring FDA compliance to get started. Afterwards, any pharmacy with a certified supplier can sell the pills to any patient with a prescription from a certified healthcare provider. All involved pharmacies, patients and prescribers must sign a consent form. Abortion drugs, which the FDA determined to be safe to use two decades ago, can then be discreetly provided at home.
FDA has published an in-depth FAQ on rule changes here Questions answered.
Medical abortion seems to be the method of choice in all cases. Between 2016 and 2018, 3.7 million medical abortion patients in the United States terminated early pregnancies with minimal complications, the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts reported. Medication already accounted for 53 percent of facility-based abortions in the United States in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization.
It is not clear about the major pharmacies CVS Or Walgreens will provide the drug. The national chain will have to decide whether it’s worth taking political action. They could stoke outrage by making the drug available only in states without abortion restrictions and restricting sales in states with bans. Walgreens spokesman Fraser Engerman told the New York Times that the company will review the FDA’s decision while continuing to let pharmacists “fill prescriptions in accordance with federal and state law.”
An official at Danco Laboratories, the company that makes the abortion pill, told The New York Times it could be a while before the major chains start selling it abortion pill. Smaller independent pharmacies are likely to be the quickest to respond to the FDA rule change, while chains will have to figure out the logistics of potentially selling abortion pills on a large scale, the official said on condition of anonymity because of fears of political backlash.
As Biden Administration Pushes to Expand Access to Abortion Pills Opportunities, but no policy would codify abortion rights in the United States, and Biden emphasized the importance of protecting the privacy of patients and health care providers.
Danco officials told TIME that FDA privacy concerns could Would stop big chains from selling abortion pills. The FDA requires all pharmacies to keep the names of abortion drug prescribers confidential and restricts access to that information to only the stores that dispense the medicines. This means that CVS or Walgreens may need to rethink how their company-wide databases work if they want to be compliant.
At the time of request for comment, FDA spokesperson directed Ars to to the page with information about the rule change. An FDA information page said the move was motivated in part to provide more timely access to drugs while reducing the “burden on the health care system.” While the FDA appears to be hoping to expand access quickly, the FDA is also telling patients that — while telemedicine patients can prescribe abortion pills online — it currently does not consider it safe to buy abortion pills online. The FDA’s FAQ notes that the organization has “sent warning letters to websites that sell unapproved and mislabeled mifepristone and misoprostol over the Internet, including AidAccess and Rablon.”
