© Provided by Washington Examiner Red states are fighting off the specter of a permanent Biden administration policy change allowing patients to receive prescribed abortion-inducing drugs through the mail, a move that Republicans argue would abandon women to deal with complications on their own.
"Make no mistake about it, the states that are pro-life are reading the tea leaves of the Democrats' radical agenda," said Sue Liebel, state policy director for the anti-abortion advocacy group Susan B. Anthony List.
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Forty-six states have introduced more than 530 abortion restrictions combined since January of this year, including 146 abortion bans. More than 60 restrictions have been enacted, according to the abortion-rights advocacy group Guttmacher Institute. Thirty-three of the total number of restrictions introduced concerned medication abortion, a noninvasive procedure that allows a person to take a one-time, two-drug regimen prescribed by their healthcare provider up to 10 weeks after the patient's last menstrual period.
At this point in 2019, only 11 restrictions on seeking medication abortions had been introduced in state legislatures.
State legislators have proposed the flood of anti-abortion bills as a bulwark against Biden administration policies to bolster access to the legal procedures, namely the Food and Drug Administration's temporary freeze on the in-person dispersing requirement for the medication to induce abortion.
The backdrop is that, with a conservative majority on the Supreme Court solidified by former President Donald Trump, state lawmakers believe that this is their opportunity to cement anti-abortion laws meant to chip away at Roe.
"This is the biggest pro-life set of legislative sessions we've ever seen," Liebel said. "These states are just emboldened on the life issue, and they are bravely going forward on pro-life."
Medication abortions have become increasingly common over the past 13 years, Guttmacher reported. From 2008 to 2017, the number of medication abortions increased 73%, while the overall number of abortions performed declined over that period. The most recent survey from Guttmacher in 2017 found that the procedure accounted for 39% of all abortions in the United States and 60% of all abortions performed up to 10 weeks gestation.
Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock announced the new policy last month in a letter to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, reporting that, after reviewing clinical data, their findings "do not appear to show increases in serious safety concerns (such as hemorrhage, ectopic pregnancy, or surgical interventions) occurring with medical abortion as a result of modifying the in-person dispensing requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic."
Under current law, patients who choose to undergo the procedure do not have to take the medication in the presence of their doctors. With or without a ban on mailing the drugs, patients are permitted to take the medication on their own in their homes. Abortion opponents argue that prescribing abortion medication to patients via telemedicine services without meeting in person to conduct a physical exam puts the patient at increased risk of not getting timely help in case something goes wrong once they've taken the medication.
"It's just incredibly important that we don't let the political aspects of the abortion topic get in the way of what's good for women. That's why we included this in this bill," said Arizona Republican state Sen. Nancy Barto, whose Senate bill to ban abortion medication prescribed via telemedicine and sent to patients' homes was signed into law last week by Gov. Doug Ducey.
Barto's bill also outlawed abortions solely on the basis of a genetic abnormality in the fetus, such as Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis, except in cases when the fetal condition is lethal. Violators of the law will be charged with a Class 6 felony.
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In the Texas Senate, Democrat Eddie Lucio's bill to ban abortion medications sent through the mail made it out of the upper chamber and placed it on the Assembly calendar for a final vote. With just a few weeks left in the session, Lucio said the bill might die in the House before it can make it to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. Still, he is confident that the measure has enough bipartisan support in the state Legislature to pass.
"I always say that this is not a party issue," Lucio told the Washington Examiner. "Most in my party are against it, but I believe it is positive to be pro-life as well as a Democrat."
Proponents of restrictions on medication-induced abortions insist the legislation is meant to protect the health of the woman seeking an abortion. Indeed, there is a chance of severe side effects of the drugs that could be fatal, such as excessive bleeding that the woman mistakes for the expected amount for a miscarriage. The medication also poses the risk of experiencing other severe complications such as an ectopic pregnancy, which occurs when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus. In that case, the pregnancy cannot proceed as normal and the fallopian tube could rupture, potentially killing the woman.
"We need to make sure that women are safe and that we understand that abortion is legal, but we want to make sure that if we lose the child in the process of this abortion, we don't lose the mother also," Lucio said.
Alabama state Rep. Andrew Sorrell, meanwhile, proposed an all-out ban on medication abortions last month, making it a Class C felony to prescribe the drugs. The House Judiciary Committee has held a hearing on the bill, but the Assembly has not voted to advance it to the state Senate. While it is "mathematically impossible" for the Legislature to pass the bill before the session ends, Sorrell said that "there's really not a whole lot of opposition. . A lot of the Democrats here are pro-life."
"This one might actually survive the challenge in court because we can make the argument that chemical abortion is four times riskier for a woman," Sorrell told the Washington Examiner. "We're not prohibiting abortion with this. We're prohibiting a certain type of abortion."
From the states' points of view, the Biden administration has signaled its readiness to overturn Trump administration anti-abortion policies. The Trump administration had appealed a federal court ruling last July that allowed a temporary freeze on the in-person dispensing requirement, and the majority-conservative Supreme Court reinstated the requirement about a week before former Trump left office.
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The Biden administration has not said how long the temporary freeze will be in place or what, if any, restrictions to remain, but ACOG Chief Legal Officer Skye Perryman told the Washington Examiner that the organization expects the policy change to extend through the end of the year.
"The FDA's announcement makes us hopeful that the agency will make decisions based on scientific evidence, which has long shown that the in-person dispensing requirement is not necessary for the safe and effective use of mifepristone," Perryman said. "We hope that this same evidence would drive future regulatory decisions regarding mifepristone, which is a safe and effective medicine for termination of pregnancy."
Tags: Healthcare, News, Abortion, Coronavirus, Biden Administration, FDA, State Legislatures
Original Author: Cassidy Morrison
Original Location: Red-state legislators look to counter Biden agenda on medication abortions