Retail pharmacies in the United States will be allowed to sell abortion pills, health officials said Tuesday, a move that could significantly expand access to the procedure after last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling that struck down federal abortion rights.
The regulatory changes announced by the Food and Drug Administration mean that mifepristone, which is the first of two drugs used to terminate a pregnancy, will be available at local pharmacies in states where abortion is permitted.
A prescription will be needed to obtain the pills, which were previously only available from a few mail-order pharmacies or certified physicians and clinics.
Demand for abortion pills has surged since the conservative-dominated Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling last June that struck down Roe v. Wade, a 1973 case that had guaranteed women’s right to abortion for half a century.
Abortion pills are already used in more than half of American procedures to end a pregnancy, experts say, and have increasingly become the focus of the political and legal battle for abortion rights since the controversial decision of the Supreme Court.
Pharmacies will need to receive certification to dispense the drug, while patients will need to fill out a consent form.
The FDA’s decision was welcomed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“We are pleased that the FDA has increased pharmacies’ access to this safe and effective medication, easing one of the agency’s unnecessary burdens on mifepristone patients,” said Julia Kaye of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion organization Susan B. Anthony List criticized the decision.
“The Biden administration has once again shown that it values the profits of the abortion industry above the safety of women and the lives of unborn children,” Dannenfelser said in a statement.
© Agence France-Presse
