TOPLINE
Medication abortions prescribed and delivered using video calls, text messages and pills delivered through the mail are just as safe and effective as a visit to the clinic, according to research published Thursday in Nature Medicine, as politicians across the country continue to fight over abortion access and the Supreme Court prepares to consider a challenge that could upend access to a key abortion drug, mifepristone.
KEY FACTS
Medication abortion, which involves taking two pills—mifepristone followed by misoprostol—can be delivered safely and effectively using telehealth, according to new peer reviewed research from University of California, San Francisco.
In 2021, the Food and Drug Administration permanently lifted restrictions that required mifepristone to be dispensed in a medical clinic, paving the way for the pill to be prescribed through a telemedicine appointment and shipped to the patient by mail.
Pregnant patients who obtained the abortion pills from virtual clinics and had two remote follow-up appointments after they’d taken them had no serious adverse events—such as needing major surgery and blood transfusion—99.8% of the time, the researchers said after analyzing data from more than 6,000 patients from virtual clinics operating in 20 states and Washington D.C. between April 2021 and January 2022.
Additionally, the researchers said around 98% of the abortions administered this way took place without needing any further medical care.
The figures are on par with outcomes for patients who receive medication and abortion care in-person, according to the researchers, who urged lawmakers to rethink policies that restrict access to this “essential healthcare service” over purported fears over safety.
NEWS PEG
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to an abortion, anti-abortion activists and lawmakers have turned their attention to other ways of restricting access. Initially, this fight mainly focused on physical abortion clinics, and the effort later expanded to target abortion medications like mifepristone and misoprostol, which respectively end pregnancy and empty the uterus by causing cramping and bleeding. Both drugs have undergone rigorous safety testing as part of the approval process in the U.S. and abroad and strong safety records from data collected over decades. Anti-abortion advocates have questioned the approval process behind the drugs and claim they are unsafe and harm women, urging officials and judges to take them off of shelves and ban them from being delivered through the post. Experts warn there could be unintended healthcare consequences from banning or curtailing access to the pills, as the drugs are also used for a variety of other medical conditions and to treat miscarriages.
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WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Despite the Supreme Court returning the power to regulate abortion access back to states when it overturned Roe, the court is due to consider the issue of abortion access once again after a federal judge in Texas took the unprecedented step of suspending the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone. The court is slated to hear arguments for the case restricting access to mifepristone in March. In a press release, UCSF said the study has “already been cited in the amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court supported by more than 300 leading reproductive health researchers. ”
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, telemedicine has become the new frontier in health care, including for medication abortion,” said the study’s lead author Ushma Upadhyay, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF. “A ruling against this method and the FDA’s rigorous science review process would be a huge blow to the American public and make this essential health service harder to get.”