FDA: WOMEN CAN GET ABORTION PILL IN MAIL

Women seeking an abortion pill will not be required to visit a doctor’s office or clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials said Tuesday in the latest reversal in an ongoing legal battle over the medication.

The Food and Drug Administration announced the policy change a day earlier in a letter to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, one of several medical groups that has sued over the restriction put in place under the Trump administration.

The FDA’s acting head, Dr. Janet Woodcock, said recent studies “do not appear to show increases in serious safety concerns,” when women take the pill without first visiting a health facility and discussing the drug’s potential risks, including internal bleeding.

The change clears the way for women to get a prescription for the pill — mifepristone — via telemedicine and receive it through the mail. However, the FDA policy only applies during the COVID-19 health emergency.

Last year, the FDA waived in-person requirements for virtually all medications, including tightly controlled drugs such as methadone. But the FDA and its parent health agency argued the rules were necessary to ensure the pills were used safely and required patients to pick up the single tablet of mifepristone at a hospital, clinic or medical office and sign a form that includes information about the medication’s potential risks.

The obstetricians and gynecologists group sued to overturn the rule and said in a statement Tuesday the FDA’s about-face on the requirement shows “it is arbitrary and does nothing to bolster the safety of an already-safe medicine.”