(LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated its guidelines on abortion pill access, allowing retail pharmacies to carry the drugs once they have completed an agreement form.
On Tuesday, the national organization “modified” the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) regarding mifepristone, simplifying the “qualifications” required to be met in order to prescribe and distribute the fatal medication.
Mifepristone, originally approved by the FDA in 2000, is used as an abortifacient when taken alongside misoprostol. The first pill prevents the hormone progesterone from reaching the developing child and the second induces labor.
READ: 4,000 babies in the US have been saved by abortion pill reversal since 2012: report
According to the FDA’s updated website, “mifepristone may only be dispensed by or under the supervision of a certified prescriber, or by a certified pharmacy on a prescription issued by a certified prescriber.”
“To become certified to dispense mifepristone, pharmacies must complete a Pharmacy Agreement Form,” the regulations explain. “Certified pharmacies must be able to ship mifepristone using a shipping service that provides tracking information. Certified pharmacies must ensure mifepristone is dispensed to the patient in a timely manner.”
Although the drug still requires a prescription, medical professionals need only to become certified through the REMS program to prescribe. Once a woman obtains a prescription, she can pick up the abortion pills at an approved pharmacy rather than at a medical clinic, limiting the amount of medical supervision present when using the dangerous drugs.
Additionally, the guidance states that medical professionals “must complete a Prescriber Agreement Form” to prescribe the pills. Before a prescription is granted, a “Patient Agreement Form” has to be “reviewed with and signed by the patient and health care provider” to include disclosure of the drug’s process and risks.
READ: Underground abortion pill network revealed after woman kills unborn baby at 13 weeks
READ: Pro-life doctors speak out against at-home chemical abortions as risk to women’s health
The FDA reviewed its REMS Program for the abortion pill last year and “determined that the available data and information [do] support modification” of the protocols surrounding the drug, which led to Tuesday’s updated regulations. In December 2021, the organization removed the requirement to distribute mifepristone in person and permitted the pills to be sent and received by mail.
“The Biden administration has once again proved that it values abortion industry profits over women’s safety and unborn children’s lives,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America,in a press release. “Abortion activists want to turn every post office and pharmacy into an abortion business, and the Biden FDA is a willing participant — even while studies show emergency rooms are being flooded with women suffering from serious, life-threatening complications caused by abortion drugs.”
The pro-life organization also pointed out that “multiple peer-reviewed studies” support the truth that mifepristone poses serious risks to women in addition to killing their babies. Hemorrhaging, follow-up surgery, and infection are some of the life-threatening complications of taking the abortion pill. The Charlotte Lozier Institute’s research shows a “53% greater risk for an ER visit for abortion complications than after a surgical abortion.”
“Pro-life governors understand this threat, which is why many states have enacted safeguards to protect women and their unborn children,” Dannenfelser added. “State lawmakers and Congress must stand as a bulwark against the Biden administration’s pro-abortion extremism.”
In a Twitter post, 40 Days for Life criticized the FDA’s updated regulations, calling it a “grotesque decision” that “isn’t based in science.” The group added that “it is making it convenient to murder the innocent.”
The FDA’s new rule allows pharmacies to sell abortion drugs at retail pharmacies, skipping the in-person doctors or clinics that might warn against the abortion pill’s dangerous effects.
— 40 Days for Life (@40daysforlife) January 4, 2023
Live Action’s Lila Rose expressed similar sentiments toward the increased accessibility of the “deadly abortion pill.” She wrote that it is “disgusting that pharmacists will now be dispensing lethal poison alongside antibiotics and allergy medication.”
BREAKING: The FDA will allow pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS to hand out the deadly abortion pill.
Disgusting that pharmacists will now be dispensing lethal poison alongside antibiotics and allergy medication. https://t.co/b2gnaiJLx2
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) January 4, 2023
Last January, a report of adverse effects from the combined use of mifepristone and misoprostol showed four cases of life-threatening sepsis and several cases of hemorrhaging. The World Health Organization promotes the use of the two drugs as essential for medical abortion in early gestation.
In November, pro-life doctors and medical groups banded together to file a lawsuit challenging the FDA’s approval of the two-drug chemical abortion regimen, citing the dangerous risks present for both mothers and their unborn babies.