“The Biden administration has once again proven that it cares about the profits of the abortion industry over the safety of women and the lives of unborn children.” said Marjorie Dannenfelser. the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America. “Abortion activists want to turn every post office and pharmacy into an abortion business, and the Biden FDA is a willing participant.”
Kirsten Moore, the director of the Expanding Medication Abortion Access project, said: “By allowing brick-and-mortar pharmacies to dispense drug-induced abortion care, the FDA is treating drug-induced abortion as the safe, effective, time-sensitive care it is. .”
Mifepristone is currently only approved for abortion. But it is also used in the treatment of some miscarriages, and pharmacies may be pressured to dispense it for that purpose as well. Recently, dozens of groups, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association, have filed a citizens’ petition asking the FDA to take action to facilitate the use of mifepristone in miscarriages.
An official from Danco, which for years was the only company to manufacture the drug, under the brand name Mifeprex, said the company expected smaller independent pharmacies would be the first to distribute the drug and that it could take the larger chains longer, in part because of the logistics involved in meeting the requirements.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the company’s concerns about threats from abortion opponents, said a logistically complicated move for major chains would be to implement the company’s requirement that pharmacies publish the names of healthcare providers who prescribe mifepristone keep confidential. For example, a chain like CVS wouldn’t be able to list a doctor’s name in a company-wide database and would have to keep that information limited to the store that fills that doctor’s prescriptions, the Danco official said.
She predicted the early adopters could be small pharmacies that typically serve university health services or hospital campus pharmacies, adding that the company didn’t expect explosive sales from the rule change. She also said it was possible more healthcare providers would decide to become prescribers if they could now write prescriptions for pharmacies to fill instead of stocking the drugs themselves.
“For some people, this will be a huge improvement in their ability to access the drug and even consider it a choice for themselves,” the Danco official said. “Not necessarily for other people. Maybe they don’t want to go to their little mom-and-pop pharmacy. They prefer to receive it by mail order where there is simply no interaction that way.”
Evan Masingill, the CEO of GenBioPro, which makes the generic version of mifepristone, said in a statement: “Today’s FDA announcement expands access to medications essential for reproductive autonomy and is a step in the right direction that necessary to access abortion care.”
