FDA urged to let abortion pill be sold at pharmacies in U.S.

NEW YORK — The socalled abortion pill — dispensed only in clinics, hospitals and doctors’ offices — should be made available by prescription in pharmacies across the country, according to a group of doctors and public health experts urging an end to federal restrictions on the drug.

The appeal to the Food and Drug Administration came in a commentary published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Among the 10 co-authors were doctors and academics from Stanford, Princeton and Columbia universities, as well as leaders of major reproductive-health organizations.

The restrictions have been in place since the drug, mifepristone, was approved for use in the U.S. in 2000. They stipulate that the drug, marketed as Mifeprex, may not be sold in pharmacies and that providers of the drug undergo a certification process.

“The restrictions on mifepristone are a shameful example of overregulation run amok,” said one of the authors, Dr. Beverly Winikoff of the New Yorkbased research organization Gynuity Health Projects.

According to the commentary, 19 deaths have been reported to the FDA among the more than 3 million women who’ve used Mifeprex in the U.S. since 2000.

The FDA’s media office referred a reporter to a 2016 document asserting that restrictions on Mifeprex remain necessary for safety reasons. The office declined further comment.

According to the latest federal figures, medical abortions — generally a two-pill regimen using Mifeprex and the drug misoprostol — accounted for about 22 percent of abortions in the U.S. in 2013. Surgical procedures accounted for nearly all the other abortions.