More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Anti-abortion lawmakers have passed significantly more abortion restrictions in 2021 than in the first four months of 2011—the year previously regarded as the most hostile to abortion rights since Roe—enacting 61 restrictions in 13 states.
“The current barrage of coordinated attacks must be taken seriously as the unprecedented threat to reproductive health care and rights that it is. The year 2021 is well on its way to being a defining one in abortion rights history.”
This week: Biden administration speaks on Black maternal health; all U.S. adults are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination; Derek Chauvin is convicted for murdering George Floyd; Senate passes bill to address anti-Asian crimes; Biden pledges to cut emissions in half; and more!
The FDA issued long-awaited guidance lifting a restriction on the abortion pill mifepristone for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency. The move permits telemedicine abortion.
The announcement came in response to a long-running campaign by activists and medical professionals to get the FDA to lift the in-person distribution requirement on mifepristone.
It is time for the Biden administration to begin fixing inequities by ensuring that federal policies do not hinder but instead help make the abortion pill more accessible, by allowing pharmacists to dispense the abortion pill.
Making mifepristone available through pharmacies can improve abortion access—especially in rural or other areas where abortion providers and clinics are remote or unavailable. And federal action can make this a reality.
“The Biden administration promised to follow the science. In this case it couldn’t be clearer: The FDA’s restrictions on medication abortion are unnecessary, outdated, and only serve to obstruct access to care, further deepening health inequities for those who are struggling most.”
So far in 2021, anti-abortion lawmakers have been introducing new legislation in overwhelming numbers.
State policymakers are eager to test the limits of what the new anti-abortion majority on the Supreme Court might allow on abortion bans and restrictions, while laying the groundwork for constitutional protections for abortion to be weakened or eliminated entirely.
In a new study, researchers found that no-test telemedicine abortion model is just as safe and effective as the traditional in-person medication abortion model. Patients actually preferred this option to the in-person model.
In this edition: We report on the growing number of hate crimes against Asian Americans, look at a new bill aimed at improving Black maternal health, and provide the latest info on the pandemic and vaccination efforts—including updated guidance on double-masking.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform is calling on the FDA to lift the in-person requirement for medication abortion care—”in light of the clear danger the requirement poses to people seeking reproductive health care at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.”
In Massachusetts, Maine Family Planning is offering telemedicine abortion, operating under a research exception to the FDA restriction.
“The pandemic has really amplified all of the hurdles for folks getting abortions. Telemedicine can help eliminate some of those challenges, allowing people to get care at home. Telemedicine has really helped to make sure that people can access the services that they want.”
