March 26, 2024
Since receiving FDA approval over two decades ago, mifepristone has proven to be a safe, effective, and affordable abortion and miscarriage care method for women and patients across the country. For all of these reasons, it now accounts for over 50% of all abortions in the U.S and has been used globally since 1986. Now telemedicine offers patients a way to access mifepristone no matter what state they live in, offering greater freedom for them to make their own reproductive health decisions without the burden of travel and with greater privacy.Â
In an amicus brief presented to the Court, ten women who obtained a medication abortion from providers in states with telemedicine abortion shield law protections shared their positive experiences receiving healthcare from licensed medical providers. We hope to see the Supreme Court reverse the lower court’s outlandish and unscientific decision and preserve access to this critical medication. Not doing so would undermine the human rights of those women whose stories are told in this brief and the tens of thousands of women with similar experiences.Â
Regardless of how the Court rules, telemedicine is and will continue to be a pathway for patients to receive safe and affordable medication abortion care from practitioners operating in shielded states. If the Supreme Court rules to restrict access to mifepristone in AHM v. FDA, providers options include using less desirable medical alternatives (such as misoprostol-only regimens), seeking additional action by the FDA and/or state-level protections to enable them to legally utilize mifepristone as the best medical practice, or engaging in harm reduction strategies.Â
You can read the amicus brief of women who accessed a medication abortion via telemedicine here.Â
About ACTÂ
Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine (ACT) is dedicated to making timely, affordable telemedicine abortion and miscarriage care available and accessible from licensed providers to patients in all 50 states. We are dedicated to passing and implementing shield laws, provide clinicians with legal guidance, direct technical assistance, and funding to run interstate telemedicine practices, and advance scientific, evidence-based medicine and cutting-edge legal research that destigmatizes telemedicine medication abortion.