The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came out against the increasingly popular practice of prescribing abortion pills to patients who aren’t pregnant Friday, according to Politico.
As states impose abortions restrictions in light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, some medical professionals are prescribing chemical abortion pills to patients who aren’t pregnant as an “advance measure,” according to Politico. The FDA said this violates their guidelines and could endanger patients.
“The FDA is concerned about the advance prescribing of mifepristone for this use,” an FDA spokesperson anonymously told Politico. “Mifepristone is not approved for advance provision of a medical abortion.” (RELATED: Abortion Is The Top Issue For Democrats Headed Into The Midterms: POLL)
A clinic escort stands in front of demonstrators taking part in the Men’s March to Abolish Abortion and Rally for Personhood outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., October 15, 2022. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Advance provision of abortion pills can prevent the woman who eventually uses them from undergoing her abortion under proper medical supervision, the FDA spokesman told Politico. Women with ectopic pregnancies need to be diagnosed and treated in person, since the abortion pill can’t treat ectopic pregnancies, and pregnant women who take the abortion pill without medical assessments risk inducing chemical abortion later in the pregnancy than is safe.
“Advance prescribing of the abortion pill is not similar to providing emergency contraception in advance as risks to women are greater risk with use of the abortion pill, compared with risks of emergency contraception,” Dr. Michael Valley, an OB-GYN and board member of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The abortion pill regimen is only approved to be given to women within the first 70 days of gestation and only after having an assessment with a physician who can try and determine if the pregnancy is growing normally in the uterus and not a dangerous ectopic pregnancy,” he said. “Telemedicine abortion pill treatment — even without advance prescribing — is more dangerous for women then in-person treatment where the location and gestational age of the pregnancy can accurately be determined.”
The FDA did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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