At the request of the great state of Louisiana, a federal appeals court has made it illegal nationwide for abortion providers to prescribe the abortion pill mifepristone by telemedicine, or to send it by mail. Mifepristone was approved by the FDA in 2000. It can be prescribed without an in-person visit since 2001. About 25% of abortions in the US are now prescribed by telemedicine.
The manufacturers have asked the US Supreme Court to immediately restore access to their product. GenBioPro’s filing said, “patients and clinicians have, for years, relied on dispensing mifepristone without an in-clinic visit, particularly for women from rural areas and those for whom transportation, child care or occupational constraints make it difficult to see providers in person.”
POTUS has asked SCOTUS to stall until the FDA conducts a review that will undoubtedly take till after the midterm elections in November. Thus the Republicans will be spared the wrath of women who need the pill, or crusaders who want it banned.
The advent of the abortion pill –a major story of our time– was first reported in January, 1987, by journalist Steve Heili in Synapse, the internal weekly at UCSF Medical Center. Synapse had a twofold mission. It was staffed by students at the four UCSF schools (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Dentistry), and covered stories of interest to students. It was also the weekly newspaper for a community of 10,000 –faculty, staff, and hospital workers. When I arrived in ’87, Charles Piller was a full-time writer for the paper, and Heilig an occasional contributor.
I broke the CBD story in Synapse in 1999, but neither Heilig or I have heard from the Pulitzer people.
