The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
After a year from hell, the pro-choice movement got a small glimmer of hope when the FDA changed the requirements for abortion pills Jan. 3, allowing them to be distributed in retail pharmacies.
Unless you live in Arizona, where pregnant people are subjected to a mandatory ultrasound, biased counseling session, and a 24-hour waiting period before they’re given the option to terminate.
It was aggravating, yet not surprising, to find out that this good news wouldn’t apply to Arizona, especially since the abortion pill is prescribed only up to 10 weeks, well within the state’s current limit of 15 weeks.
With the window for abortion so short already, why are Republican lawmakers trying to make it harder for women to access a legal option?
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Abortion pills give women the option to safely and privately end their pregnancy, and they’re often less intimidating than surgical abortions. Medication abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol accounted for nearly half of the 13,896 abortions completed in Arizona in 2021, according to the annual Arizona Abortion Report from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Mandatory ultrasounds and counseling sessions are obstacles put in place by Republican legislators in an attempt to shame and coerce a woman into having a child. Period.
Most importantly, these laws are the reason many women will have a harder time having a self-managed abortion than in other states.
When it comes to the pill, anti-abortion lawmakers are quick to question the safety of these pills in an attempt to justify their regulation, but scientific research consistently shows these pills are safe. A sweeping study of 230,000 medication abortions provided by Planned Parenthood between 2009 and 2010 found that severe adverse effects to the medication occurred in less than 1% of patients.
If conservatives are actually concerned about the misuse of these drugs, I’d like to offer them a crash course in the American health care system.
The new FDA regulations did not make the abortion pill available over the counter. It is still a highly regulated medication under the FDA. Unless obtained illegally, you still have to get written permission from a medical professional and pay upwards of $500 to obtain abortion pills from a retail pharmacy. They will not be passed out on the street.
If Gov. Katie Hobbs is serious about defending the right to choose, as she stated in her campaign, she will work to make the FDA rule change take precedence over state law and allow pharmacies to distribute the pills.
A close second priority should be overriding the law prohibiting doctors from prescribing abortion pills via telemedicine. Not everyone can take time off work or arrange a ride to a clinic for an in-person visit. Telemedicine can be done on a smartphone. In tandem with legal telemedicine, having pills available at retail pharmacies would especially help Arizona women living in rural areas far from clinics.
There may be hope in a lawsuit filed by mifepristone manufacturer GenBioPro in West Virginia that claims the state cannot override the FDA regulations to prevent the company’s ability to market the drug. (This is one of the only times you’ll catch me rooting for the pharmaceutical company in a lawsuit.)
Until something changes, this is another sad reminder of reality without Roe v. Wade, which I still can’t believe I’m writing at 22 years old. Without a national guarantee, oases and deserts of reproductive health care are forming around the country, and the people who bear the worst of this inequality deserve it the least.
Let women take the pill.
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Hannah Cree
Hannah Cree is a journalism student at the University of Arizona and an apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star. She can be reached at staropinions@tucson.com.