For years, anti-abortion advocates have claimed the abortion pill is dangerous. In 2000, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the abortion pill for sale in the U.S., they bowed to anti-abortion pressure by placing the abortion pill under a drug safety program that requires doctors to distribute the pills in person to their patients.
That restriction, still in place today, bars the use of telemedicine abortion in the U.S., even during the pandemic—despite strong evidence that telemedicine abortion is safe and effective. This evidence just became much stronger. A new study out of the U.K. provides the first real-world evidence in a national population that no-test telemedicine abortion is just as safe and effective as in-person abortion health care.