Elizabeth Warren probes abortion access
WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is launching a fresh round of questioning on states’ limits to abortion rights as a battle on medication abortion hangs in the balance at a federal court.
Warren and three other Democratic senators sent letters late last week to five major health care worker and pharmacy groups interrogating how last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision reversing national abortion rights has affected health care access and providers’ treatment of patients.
It’s not the first time the Massachusetts Democrat has aimed questions at these organizations, which include the American Medical Association, Physicians for Reproductive Health, National Nurses United, the American Pharmacists Association, and the American Hospital Association. She asked the same set of groups last summer how the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade impacted women’s health care, and reported in October that the groups warned about “diminished access” to pregnancy care and abortion bans that “will exacerbate existing health inequities.”
Warren does not chair a committee in charge of health care policy, but Democrats on the Senate HELP and Finance committees have echoed her concern about access to the abortion pill mifepristone and restrictive abortion policies. Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) signed onto the letter.
“As we approach one year since this radical Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, we must confront the devastating effects that state abortion bans and worsening restrictions are having on women across the country, as well as new threats to medication abortion that are contributing to harmful misinformation about the drug’s safety and availability,” Warren said in a statement to STAT.
Besides access to mifepristone — which is in limbo with a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals case — Warren asked about confusion over the slightly less effective abortion drug misoprostol. Blue states like California and New York have stockpiled the less controversial drug alongside mifepristone. Some patients and doctors, though, have reported difficulty accessing the FDA-approved drug amid nationwide confusion over the legality of abortion medication.
All the groups Warren wrote to have urged federal judges to maintain mifepristone’s approval.
“Judges and lawmakers should not be substituting their own opinion for the experience, expertise, and authority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” AMA President Jack Resneck said in a statement after the appeals court temporarily barred sending the pills through the mail while it considered the case.
Pharmacists in particular have been left confused by their role, especially in abortion-restrictive states. The FDA in January updated mifepristone rules to allow registered pharmacies to dispense the drug, instead of requiring patients to get it straight from their doctor. Major pharmacy chains Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS signaled they would register to dole out the drugs, but Walgreens was soon caught in controversy over its decision not to register in 21 states, including four where abortion remains legal.
The Texas court decision that triggered mifepristone’s potential ban “only adds more confusion and complexity to an already complicated state and federal legal and regulatory landscape for pharmacists and patients related to mifepristone,” the American Pharmacists Association said in an April statement.
A three-judge appeals panel heard arguments on mifepristone and FDA’s approval process earlier this month and seemed to question the agency’s decision-making and safety of the drug, which has been on the market for more than two decades.
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