Almost halfof all early abortions are done with the simple action of taking a few pills.
The pills are safe to take at home, with very low rates of complications.
TheACLU is now suing the federal governmentto lift this rule, because it doesnt benefit patients in any way.
So how do the regulations make the drug difficult to get?
Kaiser Family Foundation has abreakdown of those laws here.
In some states, mifepristone is regulated in ways that no other pill is.
For example, in three states, the drug has to be prescribed exactly as its labeling instructs.
For any other drug, providers can prescribe off label according to their clinical judgment.
Some states allow telemedicineessentially, a very official Skype callas long as youre sitting in a clinic.
This helps to make the drug more accessible, but many states dont even allow this.
The laws involved typically say they are for safetys sake.
So Dr. Grossman called their bluff, andconducted a studyto compare telemedicine and in-person medication abortions.
(None were deaths or were severe enough to require surgery.)
Bringing It Home
But this all refers to telemedicine in a clinic.
I do think that thats reasonable, he says.
These drugs are very safe.
We areabsolutely not recommending that you do this.But if youre curious about how it works,abortionpillinfo.orghas the information.
But then there are sketchy pharmacies out there that will sell what they say are genuine mifepristone and misoprostol.
Nearly all of the pills we ordered arrived, the authors write.
Its time for the laws about abortion pills to catch up with the science.
