Some female House Democrats are reportedly asking the Food and Drug Administration to lift rules requiring that anyone who wants an abortion pill has to obtain it in-person, citing COVID-19 risks, Politico reported Tuesday.
In a letter to acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock shared with Politico, the House Oversight Committee women wrote the agency must "immediately eliminate the medically unnecessary in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone," referring to one of two drugs used in medication abortions.
The group wrote the FDA suspended in-person requirements for many other drugs during the pandemic, including opioids, but kept them in place for mifepristone, which was approved in 2000.
“Imposing this requirement in the midst of a deadly pandemic — one that has disproportionately impacted communities of color across the United States — needlessly places patients and providers in harm’s way, and further entrenches longstanding health inequities,” the Democrat women wrote.
Some abortion rights groups have called on the FDA to permanently lift its restrictions on abortion medication, the most common method of abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, Politico reported.
As the result of a lawsuit filed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists last May, a federal district judge in July lifted the in-person requirement for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis. In January, the Supreme Court voted to reimpose the restrictions.
Abortion rights groups and progressives in Congress have been calling on the Biden administration to do more on pro-choice issues, including scrapping Trump administration rules requiring insurance companies to bill separately for abortion coverage and sending a budget to Congress that repeals the longstanding ban on federal funding for abortions, Politico reported.
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