US FDA allows sale of abortion pills at pharmacies for first time
Al JazeeraRegulatory change to expand abortion access comes after more than a dozen states banned abortion. The US Food and Drug Administration will allow retail pharmacies to offer abortion pills in the United States for the first time, the agency has said, even as more states seek to ban medication abortion. “Under the Mifepristone REMS Program, as modified, Mifeprex and its approved generic can be dispensed by certified pharmacies or under the supervision of a certified prescriber,” the agency said on its website on Tuesday. The regulatory change will potentially expand abortion access as President Joe Biden’s administration wrestles with how best to protect abortion rights after they were sharply curtailed last year by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling and the state bans that followed. Abortion bans, some targeting mifepristone, have gone into effect in more than a dozen states since the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to terminate pregnancies when it scrapped the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.