The New Fight for Abortion Access, by Mail

According to a Reuters-reviewed study, 43% of all abortions performed in 2014 by Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading abortion provider, are non-surgical. Medical abortions, as they are called, require 2 pills - mifepristone and misoprostol - taken 24 hours apart, causing a woman under 10 weeks pregnant to miscarry. But because the FDA has placed a REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies) designation on one of the drugs (mifepristone), it can only be legally obtained in person from a specially licensed abortion provider, rather than through a pharmacy or in the mail (although many seek out these drugs illegally). But a clinical trial using telemedical consultations aims to prove that the REMS is unnecessary, and a woman does not have to set foot in a clinic in order to safely undergo a medical abortion. The study, run by health-research non-profit Gynuity, is operating in 5 states, including New York, and is the only legal means of obtaining these drugs in the mail.