Companies That Sell Abortion Pill Break the Law, Put Women’s Lives at Risk

Last week, the Charlotte Lozier Institute released a study by research associate Mia Steupert showing that organizations selling chemical abortion pills online are largely unregulated.

Specifically, these organizations often fail to comply with existing laws, FDA regulations, and basic health and safety standards. The study considered entities that provide telehealth abortions through the formal U.S. health-care system. The study also considered overseas and online entities that sell abortion pills.

Here are some of the specifics.

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The Lozier study identified 80 organizations that provide telehealth abortions through the formal U.S. health-care system. Thirty-eight of these organizations are online only, and 42 are hybrid brick-and-mortar and online facilities. Again, these facilities are technically subject to FDA regulations. The study, however, provides strong evidence that these facilities frequently violate FDA policies, states’ pro-life laws, and basic health standards:

• Only 15 of 80 report they will adhere to FDA rules and not ship abortion pills to pregnant women after 70 days gestation.
• 43 of the 80 either had no age requirement for the woman obtaining abortion pills or did not publish this information. This would put them in violation of state parental involvement laws.
• Only 39 of the 80 formally required women to take part in a video call to discuss their eligibility for taking abortion drugs.
• Only 9 of 80 require that all women submit a form of identification before obtaining abortion pills. One additional organization required a form of identification only from women living in certain states.
• Only 16 of 80 require a virtual follow-up after the abortion has taken place.

The study also identified 26 organizations that provide chemical abortions outside the formal U.S. health system. These include three international organizations, 18 organizations that sell chemical abortion drugs online, and five community networks. Unsurprisingly, these organizations were even less regulated than those that provide telehealth abortions through the formal U.S. health-care system:

• Only one of 26 reported that it will adhere to FDA rules and not ship abortion pills to pregnant women after 70 days gestation.
• 21 of the 26 either had no age requirement or did not publish this information.
• None of the 26 formally required women to take part in a video call to discuss their eligibility for taking abortion drugs. Only one required that the woman fill out a medical eligibility intake form before she can purchase the abortion drugs.
• Only 1 of 26 requires that women submit a form of identification before obtaining the abortion drugs.

Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, unregulated telehealth abortions have posed a serious challenge to the pro-life movement. These telehealth abortions undermine and weaken many of the strong state-level pro-life laws that have been enacted post-Dobbs. This new Lozier study highlights the extent to which chemical abortions are largely unregulated, posing serious public health concerns. The study also details ongoing litigation where women unknowingly took chemical abortion pills because their partners wanted their pregnancies terminated. Had appropriate regulations and safeguards been in effect, these women and their preborn children would have been protected.

The Lozier study identifies several policy tools that could be used to ban or limit telehealth abortions. The FDA could restore the rules that existed before the Covid-19 pandemic and require women obtaining chemical abortions to have an in-person meeting with a health-care professional. There are multiple lawsuits being filed by various state attorneys general arguing that the new rules violate the FDA Administrative Procedures Act. Finally, the Comstock Act, which prevents abortifacients from being sent through the mail, could be enforced.

This important Lozier study demonstrates that stopping telehealth abortions should remain a top priority for pro-lifers.

LifeNews.com Note: Dr. Michael New is a professor at Ave Maria University. He is a former political science professor at the University of Michigan–Dearborn and holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He is a fellow at Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey.