The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a lift on restrictions on mifepristone, allowing doctors to issue online prescriptions for abortion pills and have them mailed to patients or local pharmacies. The pill—referred to as RU-486 or Mifeprex, or by its generic name mifepristone—is used to terminate early pregnancies up to 10 weeks after conception. It is also sometimes used for women who have miscarriages. Chemical abortion involves a two-drug regimen, the first of which (mifepristone) blocks progesterone, which acts to deprive the unborn child of nutrients and stops the pregnancy from progressing, while the second (misoprostol) induces labor to expel the unborn child. Since mifepristone’s FDA approval in 2000, the agency has required the drug to be physically dispensed by a doctor and for patients to retrieve it in person. That requirement was temporarily lifted in early 2021 by the FDA under the Biden administration, which cited the COVID-19 pandemic for doing …
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