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| Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul Credit: Illinois Public Radio / Flickr |
"...due to the REMS, patients have to travel to a designated clinic, medical office, or hospital, as opposed to getting a prescription from their doctor using telehealth, and then obtaining Mifepristone at a local pharmacy or delivered by mail," the letter reads. "The FDA should not mandate this medically unnecessary travel, particularly during the COVID-19 crisis where not only are women being advised to stay home, but families are faced with additional childcare and financial constraints."
If REMS restrictions were lifted, abortionists providing women with prescriptions for abortion pills will not perform ultrasounds on the women to whom they are recommending Mifepristone. This means that women who have pregnancies later than 10 weeks or who have ectopic pregnancies could receive prescriptions when they should not for their own safety. In these situations, the abortion pill regiment has an increased risk of complications such as hemorrhaging. The fact that travel to meet a physician and undergo an ultrasound to ensure a woman's safety is considered "medically unnecessary" by these attorneys general shows that they don't care about the safety of women who have abortions. They only care that abortions continue to happen.
"In light of the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis," the letter later states, "We request you remove the FDA’s restrictive REMS designation for Mifepristone thereby removing these unnecessary, undue burdens in accessing safe and time-sensitive, essential medical care. Alternatively, at a minimum, we request that you use your enforcement discretion to allow certified prescribers to use telehealth for mifepristone.
The attorneys general who sent this letter were further willing to ask that federal officials look the other way if abortionists provide pills over the mail during this pandemic, thereby neglecting their duties to protect the health and safety of Americans. The requests made by these state officials show a disregard for the safety of the citizens they serve.
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