The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said it will permanently allow patients to receive abortion pills by mail, expanding access to abortion as the Supreme Court grapples with the future of Roe v. Wade.
The new rule could help some women circumvent restrictions on abortion in states like Texas, where patients must pick up the medication in person and can’t acquire it through a telehealth appointment.
During the pandemic, the FDA temporarily eased restrictions on mifepristone — which taken together with another medication called misoprostol ends an early pregnancy — so that patients could temporarily order the pills by mail.
The expansion of telehealth services during the pandemic spurred greater access to the regimen, which was approved by the FDA in 2016 to terminate pregnancies up to 70 days gestation.
Thursday’s move comes as the Supreme Court scrutinizes abortion access, and as several GOP-led states have taken steps to ban access to abortion medication through telehealth services.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
