After a decision on Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to relax restrictions on the use of abortion pill Mifeprex, American women will have easier and cheaper access to abortion by medication.
The change just set the stage for another front in the fight over abortion that come up again in the Supreme Court in recent weeks and has even spilled into the U.S. presidential election campaign. By relaxing the guidelines for taking the medical pill that induces abortion, the FDA is reviving one of the most controversial issues of the abortion debate.
The latest change in guidelines allows women to take the medical abortion pill with fewer visits to the doctor and further into pregnancy. According to The New York Times, the announcement on Wednesday came unexpectedly amid an election campaign in which both parties try to gain the women's vote. In this context, some abortion opponents claimed that the change in FDA guidelines is politically motivated.
The FDA updated the prescribing information on the Mifeprex's label to ease access to the drug. The use was expanded from the current 49 days to 70 days of gestation. The FDA new guidelines also reduced the number of required visits to a doctor and the recommended dose of the drug.
According to Reuters, Vicki Saporta, president and chief executive of the National Abortion Federation, declared that the FDA "has finally caught up to the evidence-based practice in the United States." But, on the other side, anti-abortion campaigners condemned the expanded access to the medical abortion drug.
According to Randall O'Bannon, director of education and research for the National Right to Life organization, the new FDA guidelines will cause an expanding of "the customer base for the abortion industry." Abortion has been for long a battlefield in U.S. culture wars and recently it became an issue in the 2016 presidential election campaign.
