United States: Pharmacies Can Distribute Abortion Pills

The product in question is mifepristone, or RU-486, which the late Professor Jérôme Lejeune rightly described as an “anti-human pesticide.” This abortion pill causes the death of the fetus; it is combined with misoprostol which expels the dead child 24 to 48 hours later.

Remember that the murderous use of RU-486 is due to Professor Etienne-Emile Baulieu who, in 1982, presented it as an alternative to abortion by aspiration. Professor Baulieu has just been elevated to the dignity of Grand Cross in the order of the Legion of Honor, on January 1st.

A Change in FDA Rules

An article posted on the National Catholic Register site on January 6, reports that “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on January 3 announced that it will allow any patient with a prescription to obtain mifepristone from her local retail pharmacy if it is appropriately certified to dispense the drug. Previous FDA policy only allowed certified doctors, clinics, and some mail-order pharmacies to dispense mifepristone.”

Abortion pills will thus be much more widely available. Indeed, CVS and Walgreens, the nation's top two drugstore chains, have announced plans to fill prescriptions for mifepristone.

Steven H. Aden, general counsel at Americans United for Life, said the decision is “yet another in a long train of actions the Biden administration has taken that put women at grave risk, in its headlong rush to push abortion drugs on the American public.”

He explains his point: “Despite the FDA's longtime approval of chemical abortion as a restricted drug, with solemn warnings about its use and restrictions on its distribution because of the role it plays in causing dangerous hemorrhaging, infection, and missed ectopic pregnancies, this administration seems to stop at nothing to tear down the rules that had helped protect women from this drug.”

“As of 2020, abortion pills now account for more than half of abortions in the U. S…. Though the FDA authorizes the use of the drug only up to the 10 weeks into pregnancy, many clinics and providers offer the drug up to 12 or 13 weeks, according to the New York Times.” CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens each have 9,000 retail locations in the United States.

“We plan to seek certification to dispense mifepristone where legally permissible,” Amy Thibault, lead director for external communications at CVS Pharmacy, told CNA. There is a question of whether pharmacy employees with religious or moral objections to abortion will be able to avoid taking part in prescribing the abortion drug. “We have policies in place to ensure that no patient is ever denied access to medication prescribed by a physician based on a pharmacist's individual religious or moral beliefs,” Ms. Thibault said. However, the group has announced that in the event of conscientious objection, if notified in advance, they would make other arrangements.

A Walgreens spokesperson said the company intended to have its pharmacies certified to dispense the drug, but did not specifically address the question of employees with objections to abortion.

Reactions from Pro-Life Groups

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion group, called for political action to counter the regulatory changes.

“State lawmakers and Congress must stand as a bulwark against the Biden administration's pro-abortion extremism,” Dannenfelser told the Wall Street Journal. “We hope to see the FDA do its job to protect the lives of women and put an end to chemical abortions.”

A December 2021 change permanently lifted the requirement for patients to obtain mifepristone during in-person appointments with a physician. This change allowed abortion pills to be prescribed via telemedicine and prescriptions to be filled by mail.

The Catholic Medical Association criticized the rule changes in a January 3 statement.

“As health care professionals, medical ethics experts, and patient advocates, we wish to speak out strongly against these violations of women's rights to informed consent and quality of care,” the group said. “Politics has no place in the care of women.”

The group noted that the provisions do not require the prescribing physician to be in the same state as the patient. It objected that no in-person physical assessment is required to document weeks of gestation or the position of the fetus. The lack of in-person examination potentially aids those who would use the drug to conceal the rape of a minor.

“The FDA admits that there is a potential for excessive bleeding and that there have been 28 deaths associated with the use of this drug,” the statement from the Catholic Medical Association continued. Finally, “no follow-up physical examination is required to assess for an incomplete abortion and the resulting risks of continued bleeding, retained products of conception necessitating surgical removal, or infections, which can lead to infertility and in extreme cases, even in death.”