mifepristone

‘Huge surge’ in U.S. abortion pill demand after Trump’s election win

"Within hours of Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Americans began looking to stockpile reproductive health medications, including emergency contraception and abortion pills, amid widespread fears that his administration could restrict access to these essential resources. The abortion pill mifepristone — sold as Mifegymiso in Canada and Mifeprex in the U.S. — has been flying off the shelves, with online retailers reporting a surge in demand as people take proactive steps to safeguard their reproductive autonomy, explained Elisa Wells, co-founder of Plan C, a U.S. public health initiative that helps facilitate medication abortion. “Prior to the election results coming out, earlier this month, we had 4,500 visitors per…
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Judge strikes down a North Carolina abortion restriction but upholds another

"A federal judge ruled Friday that a provision in North Carolina's abortion laws requiring doctors to document the location of a pregnancy before prescribing abortion pills should be blocked permanently, affirming that it was too vague to be enforced reasonably. The implementation of that requirement was already halted last year by U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles until a lawsuit challenging portions of the abortion law enacted by the Republican-dominated General Assembly in 2023 was litigated further. Eagles now says a permanent injunction would be issued at some point...."
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Now an abortion rights advocate, woman raped by stepfather as a child will campaign with first lady

A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child will campaign with first lady Jill Biden in Pennsylvania this weekend as part of a 2024 election push around the anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade.
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Abortion Pill Access Is Still Under Threat After SCOTUS Ruling, Legal Experts Warn

"....Last week’s ruling was widely expected, legal experts say. “Anybody that values reproductive freedom and the scientific integrity of the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] can breathe a sigh of relief,” says Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University. But “it would be foolish to declare victory” for abortion rights, he says. The ruling was a narrow legal technicality that didn’t go into the case’s actual merits. It’s quite possible, Gostin says, that the Court could make future rulings that restrict access to medication abortion and usurp the FDA’s broader authority to regulate drug safety...."
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Women increasingly fear being prosecuted for using abortion pills, advocacy groups say

"The Rev. Love Holt, a single mother of five, was rushed to an emergency room in Missouri last year after her mother found her passed out in her car and “covered in blood.” When Holt arrived at the hospital, fear filled her instead of relief.   “I just kept saying over and over, ‘Don’t f---ing die. Don’t say you took those pills,’” Holt told NBC News. “I was in fear, honestly, that I was going to be carted away from my hospital bed to a jail cell had they found out.” ..."
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New rules protect pregnant workers, but red states sue over abortion provisions

Natasha Jackson was four months pregnant when she told her supervisor she was expecting. It was 2008, and Jackson was an account executive at a rental furniture store in Charleston, South Carolina — the only female employee there. “I actually hid my pregnancy as long as I could because I was scared about what could happen,” she said. When her doctor recommended that she not lift more than 25 pounds, her employer wouldn’t let her move temporarily to a role where she didn’t need to lift furniture, even though those roles were available, she said. She was forced to go…
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Louisiana votes to make abortion pills controlled substances

"Louisiana has become the first state to pass a law that designates abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances. Once Gov. Jeff Landry signs the bill into law, as he is expected to do, possession of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol without a prescription would be a crime punishable with possible fines and jail time. Louisiana already has a near-total abortion ban, so the medications, which are also used for miscarriages and ulcers, are only available in that state under limited circumstances...."
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Louisiana may reclassify drugs used in abortion as controlled dangerous substances

"Louisiana lawmakers are considering adding two drugs commonly used in pregnancy and reproductive health care to the state's list of controlled dangerous substances, in a move that has alarmed doctors in the state. Mifepristone and misoprostol have many clinical uses, but one FDA-approved use is to take the pills to induce an abortion up to ten weeks gestation...."
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Telehealth abortions now account for nearly 1 in 5 in US, with thousands accessed under shield laws each month, report says

Most abortions in the United States are medication abortions, and telehealth has become an increasingly common way to access abortion pills — especially since the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision revoked the federal right to an abortion. In the last few months of 2023, nearly 1 in 5 abortions nationwide — about 17,000 each month — were medication abortions in which the pills were mailed to a patient after a remote consultation with a clinician, according to a new report from #WeCount, a research project led by the Society of Family Planning. When #WeCount started collecting data from abortion providers in April…
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Supreme Court Skeptical of Push to Curb Access to Abortion Pill

"In the 2022 case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and held that there is no constitutional right to an abortion, returning the legality of abortion to the states. The court must now decide if access to mifepristone, the drug used in medication abortions, should be restricted. During oral arguments last week, most of the justices seemed reluctant to roll back access to the drug. Instead, they focused on whether the plaintiffs had a legal right, or standing, to sue and questioned whether the doctors in the case, Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for…
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Supreme Court hears mifepristone arguments as protests gather outside: Highlights

"Abortion providers responded to today's oral arguments by emphasizing the safety and effectiveness of mifepristone, stressing that reduced access to the drug could threaten public health. “The very existence of this case puts every other FDA-approved medication at risk of being taken off the market or restricted for political reasons,” Alexis McGill Johnson, CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement...."
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A ‘dangerous precedent’: Doctors and patient advocates fear restricted access to abortion pill

"About two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the court on Tuesday will revisit the issue of reproductive rights, this time contemplating whether to limit access to mifepristone, the first of two pills used in medication abortion. Ahead of oral arguments and eventual ruling, doctors and patient advocates are expressing alarm about what might happen if the high court decides to tighten access to the drug...."
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