CNN
—
The Supreme Court on Friday protected access to a widely used abortion drug freezing the sentences of the lower courts that imposed restrictions on its use.
A federal judge in Texas previously ruled suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, the first drug in the medical abortion process, siding with the anti-abortion coalition of national medical associations that brought the lawsuit.
Data reviewed by CNN shows that mifepristone is even safer than some common low-risk prescription drugs, such as penicillin and Viagra. There have been five deaths associated with the use of mifepristone for every 1 million people in the US who have used the drug since its approval in 2000, according to the US Food and Drug Administration starting last summer. That is a mortality rate of 0.0005%.
Comparatively, the risk of death from penicillin, a common antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections such as pneumonia, is four times that of mifepristone, according to a study on life-threatening allergic reactions. The risk of death from taking Viagra, which is used to treat erectile dysfunction, is almost 10 times higher, according to a study cited in the amicus brief filed by the FDA.
He Department of Justice, FDA and Danco — a manufacturer of mifepristone involved in the case — have appealed the judgment.
“[Mifepristone] it has been used for more than 20 years by more than five million people of childbearing potential,” said Ushma Upadhyay, an associate professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. “Their security is very well established.”
Within hours of the decision in Texas, a federal judge in Washington state issued a conflicting ruling that the federal government should keep mifepristone available in the 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia that had sued in a separate lawsuit.
If the Texas ruling is allowed to take effect40 million more women of reproductive age would lose access to medical abortion services nationwide, according to data from abortion rights advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America. That’s in addition to the 24.5 million women of reproductive age who live in states that ban abortion.
“The court’s disregard for well-established scientific facts in favor of speculative accusations and ideological assertions will harm our patients and undermine the nation’s health,” said Dr. Jack Resneck, Jr., president of the American Medical Association, in a statement. “By rejecting medical facts, the court has intruded into the examining room and intervened in decisions pertaining to patients and physicians.”
Medical abortion has become the most common method of abortion, accounting for more than half of all abortions in the US in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
The growing popularity of medical abortion is due in large part to its accessibility, said Abigail Aiken, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin who leads a medical abortion research group.
“It reduces the cost, it reduces the barriers where people may not want to go to a clinic,” he said.
It is also a safer option than procedural abortion or childbirth. according to a 2015 study led by Upadhyay. That means that out of more than 11,000 cases, 35 experienced major complications.
The probability of Serious complications through the abortion procedure. —performed in the second trimester or later—is slightly higher than medical abortion at 0.41%, according to the same study. AND Birth By far it comes with the highest risk, at 1.3%.
If access to mifepristone is cut off, abortion clinics and telehealth organizations could switch to misoprostol-only abortions, Aiken told CNN. Although misoprostol-only abortions are used worldwide, they are less effective, associated with a higher risk of serious complications, and are often more painful than the combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, she said.
in the last US study of self-managed medical abortions with misoprostol alone., Johnson found misoprostol-only abortions to be a safe, albeit less safe, alternative to using both pills. The study, published in February, analyzed data from the 2020 online telehealth medical abortion provider Aid Access. Nearly 90% of 568 users reported complete abortions and 2% experienced serious complications using misoprostol alone.
Mifepristone and misoprostol together are still considered the gold standard, Aiken told CNN. People who used the two-pill combination were less likely to experience serious complications than those who followed the misoprostol-alone regimen.
“It’s clear that people can use these drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, at home, even without the help of a medical professional, very safely,” Aiken said.
Because misoprostol is used to treat multiple ailments, including stomach ulcers, it’s easily stocked in pharmacies and unlikely to be withdrawn from the market any time soon, Johnson told CNN.
However, a less effective method means that more people are likely to have botched abortions.
“It may not work for some people and prolong their miscarriages,” Upadhyay said. “Then when they come back to the clinic, they are looking for an abortion later in the pregnancy.”
Before the ruling, 19 states already restricted telehealth abortion care, limiting access to medical abortion. Nearly half of U.S. adults were unsure whether medical abortion was currently legal in their state as of late January, according to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Experts say the confusion will only exacerbate.
“People are not going to be sure that mifepristone or misoprostol is, in fact, available. I think it’s going to be confusing,” Aiken said. “As people search for options or feel insecure about their options, they may end up delaying [care].”
—————————————————-
Source link