The agency is forcing many patients to take on unnecessary COVID-19 risk.

ACLU Supporter –

At a time when we should all be looking out for one another's health and safety, many of our leaders are focused on restricting abortion access in the pandemic instead. So we'll be direct:

Abortion is essential, time-sensitive health care – and the ACLU will not stop fighting to protect it.

Just today, we filed a lawsuit challenging a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restriction that forces patients to risk exposure to the COVID-19 virus as a condition of receiving medication for early abortion and miscarriage treatment. Our explainer on this new case will give you a much fuller picture of what is at stake. But here are the key pieces to note:
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The medication in question – mifepristone – has been FDA-approved for 20 years. Clinicians are permitted to evaluate patients and prescribe it using telehealth, and patients are allowed to swallow the pill at home. But the FDA is refusing to halt its requirement that people must go to a hospital or medical facility just to pick up the pill in-person – despite leading medical authorities urging them to make an exception during the pandemic.

This means patients must subject themselves to unnecessary risks of COVID-19 in order to get the essential health care they need. The FDA restriction has particularly severe implications for communities of color and low-income communities – who are experiencing disproportionately high rates of severe illness and death from COVID-19.

Meanwhile, there's no medically justifiable reason for it. Of the over 20,000 drugs that the FDA regulates, this pill is the only one required to be picked up in-person – even though it doesn't have to be taken onsite or administered by health care personnel.

Simply put, this government agency is creating hurdles to abortion and miscarriage care in the face of a global health crisis. It's unnecessary, it's dangerous, and that's why we're suing on behalf of a coalition of medical experts to make sure it ends.

But we'll need informed people like you with us as we move forward in our work. So please read up on this crucial case today and be ready for what's next.
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Thank you for reading,

Julia Kaye
Attorney at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project

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