SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) – Requiring patients to go to a hospital, clinic or doctor’s office to obtain an abortion pill unnecessarily risks their health during the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of doctors alleges in a lawsuit, who tried to suspend abortion federal rule.
The federal lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Maryland by the American Civil Liberties Union, questions why patients can’t fill prescriptions for mifepristone in the mail. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved mifepristone for use in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, to terminate an early pregnancy or treat a miscarriage.
READ: Texas may ban drug abortions amid virus effort, appeals court rules
“Of the more than 20,000 drugs regulated by the FDA, mifepristone is the only one that patients must receive in person at a hospital, clinic, or doctor’s office, but can self-administer and unsupervised at a location of their choice,” the lawsuit says.
The ACLU sued the FDA and the US Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other groups.
An HHS spokeswoman referred an Associated Press reporter’s query to the FDA’s Bureau of Media Affairs, which said in an email that the agency is not commenting on pending litigation.
In 2017, the ACLU in Hawaii filed a lawsuit challenging FDA limits on where women can obtain the abortion pill. In January, a federal judge stayed the Hawaii case pending the US Supreme Court ruling in a separate lawsuit related to Louisiana’s abortion. The Louisiana case could decide whether doctors and clinics have the right to challenge abortion restrictions in federal courts.
Julia Kaye, attorney for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said the Trump administration would rather endanger the lives of patients and doctors than remove “an unnecessary obstacle to abortion treatment.”
“During this pandemic, every other corner of the federal government is trying to make it easier for patients to get the medical care they need without unnecessary health visits that put their safety at risk,” Kaye said.
Federal courts have heard other cases related to access to abortion during the coronavirus pandemic.
After Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order in March banning nonessential medical procedures during the pandemic, the Texas Republican Attorney General said performing abortions except in the case of an immediate medical emergency would violate the order . A federal appeals court ruled last month that Texas can ban medical abortions to help combat the spread of COVID-19.
Earlier this month, a federal judge denied a request by Arkansas’ only surgical abortion clinic to block the state from enforcing a rule requiring a negative coronavirus test before a woman has the procedure.
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