If you recall, one of the two pro-life victories from last legislative session was bill HB 1336, a bill signed into law that required abortion doctors to notify mothers their planned chemical abortion could potentially be reversed. This law ensures mothers planning a chemical abortion have all available information before making that important decision. As we’ve seen over the months, with story upon story, chemical pill abortion reversal works and over 900 babies have been saved in the U.S. alone, so it’s critical information!
Reversing a chemical abortion requires medical treatment to reverse the effects of the first abortion pill, mifepristone. Quite simply, the purpose of mifepristone is to kill the baby. So, it’s not surprising a pill with such significant consequences is also dangerous and can put the mother’s health at great risk. The effects of the pill is why mifepristone is so tightly regulated at the federal level and why it requires a doctor’s visit to receive.
Unfortunately, twenty pro-abortion states and the District of Columbia now want mifepristone to be available by telehealth –without a doctor visit. These states wrote a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services claiming that the COVID-19 crisis is preventing women from accessing this “medically necessary medication” and that women need to use telehealth to get it and be allowed to simply pick up the abortion pill at a pharmacy, instead of going to the doctor. These states want to allow killing with a phone call.
You’re probably asking by now, doesn’t this reverse the expansion of No, it doesn’t. Regardless of what our Governor does, mifepristone is regulated at a Federal level and cannot be prescribed remotely, even with the Governor’s wise decision to expand telehealth in North Dakota. These pro-abortion states are simply using the expansion of telehealth as a convenient excuse to challenge this important federal law.
So, what can we do? First, we have countless North Dakota pro-life Senators and Representatives who have already signed on to a letter urging HHS and the FDA to keep their medically sound reasons in place requiring in-person examination and prescription of mifepristone. Now comes your part.
We are asking for your help sending an email to HHS and the FDA urging them not to remove federal regulations for mifepristone. Simply click here, fill out your information, and email these agencies, letting them know your commitment to proper medical process and to upholding decisions previously made through extensive and deliberation.
If HHS and the FDA lift restrictions, it could nullify some of the pro-life advances North Dakotans have accomplished over the years. Let’s be sure we don’t let this attack on pro-life values sneak by us under the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic response!
For life,
Mark Jorritsma
President and Executive Director