While federal authorities on Thursday permanently reversed restrictions on the first of a two-pill medication abortion regime, Missourians are still unable to receive the medication by mail.
“The reversal of these restrictions affirms what we know to be true: the abortion pill is safe, effective and should be treated as any other prescription medication patients can access at pharmacies or by mail.” —Dr. Colleen McNicholas
Missouri, along with 18 other states, have banned telemedicine abortion services and require providers be physically present, regardless of federal guidelines or laws.
According to Reproductive Health Services (RHS) Of Planned Parenthood Of The St. Louis Region, the abortion drug is called mifepristone is the only drug out of the 20,000 prescription medications regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required to be dispensed in person despite evidence this is medically unnecessary.
The FDA temporarily relaxed these restrictions due to COVID-19, allowing Planned Parenthood to establish an abortion-pill-by-mail program in southern Illinois, the first and only Planned Parenthood to do so in the state.
Through that program, the organization said it gathered data about safety and efficacy of telemedicine abortion.
Since July 2020, when the program began, 500 patients self-managed their abortions at home with 99% resulting in safe outcomes. Of those 500, Planned Parenthood reported 30% chose to receive their medications by mail and 70% chose to pick up their medications at the health center.
“This is a victory for patients and for medicine,” said Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for RHS Of Planned Parenthood Of The St. Louis Region in a statement. “For far too, long the FDA has treated medication abortion as the one exception to evidence-based medicine. The reversal of these restrictions affirms what we know to be true: the abortion pill is safe, effective and should be treated as any other prescription medication patients can access at pharmacies or by mail.”
Planned Parenthood, which noted all states bordering Illinois have banned the access to the pill by mail, argues the ban is inconsistent with data and evidence showing medication-induced abortion can be safely self-managed at home.
“Now, it’s time to ensure all states update their telemedicine abortion laws consistent with FDA guidance,” McNicholas said. “Otherwise, today’s development is only a victory dependent on where you live.”
The FDA’s announcement came on the same day Missouri Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, prefiled a piece of legislation that would prohibit all abortions once cardiac activity is detected in an embryo, usually around six weeks.
Coleman represents an area just south of Fenton within Jefferson and St. Louis counties.
“Missouri’s Empower Women, Promote Life Act #hb1987 will create a private cause of action to ensure Missouri uses every legal avenue to protect women and children in our state from the violence of abortion,” she tweeted.
In addition to banning abortions past the six-week pregnancy mark, the bill further limits public funding of Planned Parenthood and allows private citizens to sue clinics, doctors and anyone else who facilitates an abortion after the proposed cutoff of six weeks.
Coleman’s legislation is one of morethan a dozen House bills prefiled before the beginning of Missouri’s annual legislative session, which runs from Jan. 5 through mid-May.
Texas enacted a law similar to Coleman’s proposed legislation on Sept. 1 prohibiting all abortions for a person who is more than six weeks into their pregnancy, becoming the country’s first six-week abortion ban to be enforced. The law remains in effect as it also awaits a ruling from the Supreme Court after oral arguments challenging the law were heard Nov. 1.
Meanwhile, experts and politicians are anticipating the Supreme Court will overturn the landmark abortion case, Roe v. Wade, in June after hearing oral arguments earlier this month in what has been called the most significant abortion case in nearly 50 years.
At the heart of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is a Mississippi law banning abortion at 15 weeks, the point in a pregnancy in which the state claims fetuses can feel pain.
Legal experts expected the Supreme Court to rule on the Texas law before the Mississippi case, but that has not happened. The law, as it stands, violates a person’s constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade.
The Texas law also triggered what pro-choice advocates feared would be a domino effect on abortion access in the Midwest.
