The U.S. Bishops’ Conference (USCCB) has decried the lifting of safety protocols on chemical abortions, calling the measure a “tragedy” for the preborn and “harmful to women in need.”
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that retail pharmacies will now be able to distribute the chemical abortion drug RU-486 (mifepristone) by prescription through a simple certification process.
Prior to the FDA decision, the distribution of RU-486 was often restricted to specially qualified licensed physicians and in 19 states, the prescribing clinician was required to be physically in the room with the patient while she was taking the drug to monitor the situation.
Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge, chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued a statement this weekend condemning the decision, which comes in the wake of last June’s Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
The Plan C website on a smartphone arranged in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. Plan C, an American group that provides information on how to obtain at-home abortion medications, conducts tests to verify that Indian generics arriving via post are legitimate. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty)
“We decry the continuing push for the destruction of innocent human lives and the loosening of vital safety standards for vulnerable women,” Bishop Burbidge said on behalf of the USCCB. “This week’s action by the FDA not only advances the obvious tragedy of taking the lives of the preborn, but is also harmful to women in need.”
In his statement, Burbidge notes that the incidence of serious complications after chemical abortion is considerably higher than after surgical abortion, which suggests the need for greater supervision, not less.
“Overturning the safety protocols around abortion-causing drugs to effectively make them available on demand at pharmacies, requiring no in-person medical supervision, facilitates the isolation of critically vulnerable pregnant women, and invites more risk, pain, and trauma,” he declared.
The bishop also warns that the FDA decision may also result in new violations of conscience for pharmacy workers who refuse to dispense such drugs on moral grounds.
“The FDA should protect the life and health of both mothers and children, not loosen safety standards under industry or political pressures,” he asserts in a thinly veiled reference to the Biden administration’s push to facilitate access to chemical abortions.
“We call on the Administration to correct its policy priorities and stand with mothers in need. They deserve better,” he states.
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