All posts tagged: mifepristone

Reproductive Rights on Trial with Skye Perryman

Reproductive Rights on Trial with Skye Perryman

Published by Sam

 In the coming days, the United States Supreme Court will hear a case on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) – a federal law that guarantees all people treatment for emergency medical conditions. However, anti-abortion extremists are trying to exclude pregnant people from EMTALA’s long-standing protections. This has the potential to not only drastically impact access to life-saving reproductive care, but also religious freedom. The same goes for the recent SCOTUS oral arguments on access to mifepristone, the leading medical pregnancy termination drug. And of course, we’re fast approaching the 2nd anniversary of the Dobbs decision, reversing Roe v. Wade. Infringing on people’s rights to make personal decisions based on their own moral beliefs is one way that religious extremists are seeking to chip away at our democracy and impose their Christian nationalist agenda. One way to push back is to stand together for the values most Americans actually hold. This week on The State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush speaks with Skye Perryman of …

Mifepristone case might jeopardize the professional fabric of medicine

Mifepristone case might jeopardize the professional fabric of medicine

Published by skeptic

The argument before the Supreme Court in the case of FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine focused mostly on the question of whether or not the doctors in the case—a group of OB/GYN physicians—had standing to bring the original suit in the first place. This was one of the two important legal issues present in the case, the other being the nature and extent of the FDA’s authority to make rules about the circumstances under which mifepristone, or really any drug at all, can be made available to the public. But during the course of the arguments, the doctors’ attorney, Erin Hawley, made a comment that although brief, was radical in its challenge to basic ethical obligations in medicine.  Hawley’s case rested in large part on the assertion that the doctors she represented had been forced to violate their consciences by providing care to women who have chosen to terminate their pregnancies, which they find morally objectionable. In fact, as the Department of Health and Human Services makes clear, physicians are protected from being forced to perform …

Women who used abortion pills on US supreme court mifepristone case: ‘It’s maddening’ | Abortion

Women who used abortion pills on US supreme court mifepristone case: ‘It’s maddening’ | Abortion

Published by skeptic

Mercy’s periods had always been very regular, so when she missed one in 2016, she immediately took a pregnancy test. It was positive, and she managed to get an appointment at an abortion clinic the next day. Despite being able to act quickly, she was in her seventh week of pregnancy by the time she could take abortion pills in Ohio – a state that was, at the time, debating banning abortion from the moment embryonic cardiac activity is detected (usually around six weeks). Ohio has since enshrined abortion rights in its state constitution following a referendum. After the supreme court heard oral arguments this week in its first abortion case since it overturned Roe v Wade almost two years ago, Mercy reflected on her experience of accessing a medical abortion. There have been fears that the case – the US Food and Drug Administration v Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine – could curtail access to medication abortions, though legal experts say it does not appear to be going well for anti-abortion doctors. When she arrived …

Abortion pill mifepristone is approved in more than 90 countries

Abortion pill mifepristone is approved in more than 90 countries

Published by Sam

A Supreme Court ruling in April 2023 temporarily preserved access to the abortion drug mifepristone, which is used in the majority of abortions in the United States, and sent the case back to federal court. On Tuesday, the issue returned to the Supreme Court, with justices considering oral arguments regarding the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug more than 20 years ago. The sheer fact of the legal battle over the drug places the United States in a unique position relative to much of the world when it comes to reproductive health. This legal uncertainty, just years after the court eliminated the right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade, runs counter to one of the most striking global trends of recent decades on approved approaches to abortion: the rapid, widespread acceptance of medication abortions performed with mifepristone, often taken in combination with the drug misoprostol. In 1988, France and China became the first countries to authorize the use of mifepristone. Thirty-six years later, at least 94 countries have approved the drug to …

From convenience to crisis: Here’s what will happen if the Supreme Court restricts mifepristone

From convenience to crisis: Here’s what will happen if the Supreme Court restricts mifepristone

Published by skeptic

On March 26, the U.S. Supreme Court will finally hear oral arguments over the safety of mifepristone — the first drug used in a medication abortion. While experts don’t expect to hear a decision from the highest court right away, one in favor of the plaintiffs — Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine — could severely limit access to mifepristone across the country, even in states where abortions are still legal. This would come at a time when medication abortion has become a more accessible option in a highly restrictive post-Dobbs landscape. For instance, a new Guttmacher Institute report from the Monthly Abortion Provision Study recently found that there were approximately 642,700 medication abortions in the United States in 2023, meaning they accounted for nearly 63 percent of all abortions. As women’s health specialists and doctors have told Salon before, the effects of such restrictions will be “devastating,” and have far-reaching consequences beyond impacting reproductive health. But what’s exactly at stake?  The first significant way access to medication abortion could change in light of this ruling is …

CVS and Walgreens to start dispensing mifepristone

CVS and Walgreens to start dispensing mifepristone

Published by skeptic

Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022. Allen G. Breed/AP hide caption toggle caption Allen G. Breed/AP Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022. Allen G. Breed/AP CVS and Walgreens, two of the country’s largest retail pharmacies, received federal certification to begin dispensing mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions, in states where it is legal to do so, the companies separately confirmed to NPR. CVS will start filling prescriptions for mifepristone in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the weeks ahead, with eventual plans to expand to other states where the drug is legal on a rolling basis, according to a CVS spokeswoman. Walgreens will begin dispensing the pill at some of its stores in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Illinois within a week, a spokesman for the company said. “We are beginning a phased rollout in select locations to allow us …

CVS employee fired for refusing to sell birth control sues, claiming discrimination

CVS employee fired for refusing to sell birth control sues, claiming discrimination

Published by Sam

(RNS) — A former CVS Health employee filed a federal lawsuit in Florida against the company after she was fired for refusing to prescribe contraceptives due to her religious beliefs. The employee, nurse practitioner Gunna Kristofersdottir, joins three other former CVS workers who sued the company for religious discrimination after being fired for similar reasons.  Kristofersdottir is being represented by the religious freedom-oriented legal group First Liberty Institute. Its lawyers argue that the company’s refusal to exempt religious employees from filling contraceptive prescriptions constitutes religion-based discrimination and a Title VII violation. The Title VII law of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects employees and job applicants from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. “It’s important that nurse practitioners are able to serve their patients in a way that doesn’t require them to violate their religious beliefs,” said Stephanie Taub, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute. Gunna Kristofersdottir. (Photo courtesy of First Liberty) A Roman Catholic, Kristofersdottir believes “the procreative potential of intercourse” shouldn’t be “subverted by the device or procedure,” according …

In Washington state, pharmacists may soon prescribe and dispense mifepristone : Shots

In Washington state, pharmacists may soon prescribe and dispense mifepristone : Shots

Published by skeptic

Mifepristone is a medication typically used in combination with misoprostol to bring about a medical abortion. Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images Mifepristone is a medication typically used in combination with misoprostol to bring about a medical abortion. Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images Over the past several months, a handful of community pharmacies in states where abortion remains legal have begun to take advantage of a new rule that allows them to fill prescriptions for the abortion pill mifepristone. Prior to the rule change, which was finalized last January by the Food and Drug Administration, pregnant people had to get the drug directly from their doctor or by mail if using telemedicine, depending on the laws in their state. Reproductive health experts have said relaxing that requirement could help ease the growing burden on abortion clinics in states where abortion is legal. And perhaps nowhere is the potential for that greater than in Washington state, where efforts are underway to open up access to medication abortion in …