TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Planned Parenthood says it will continue to offer drug induced abortions despite a Federal Court ruling against using one of the two drugs in the procedure.
The drug in dispute is called Mifepristone. It’s used in a two drug procedure to induce an abortion without a physical in-clinic procedure. But there are two competing rulings—one from a Federal Judge in Texas that bars the use of Mifepristone but another from a Federal Judge in Washington State. Arizona’s Attorney General says that Washington State ruling will continue to allow Mifepristone in Arizona.
Planned Parenthood says Mifepristone is an important part of a two-drug protocol that accounts for about half of the abortions in the U-S—-and it says drug induced abortions are becoming a bigger factor now that new abortion restrictions are leading to more early abortions.
Planned Parenthood says drug induced abortions are simpler, safer and more private. Planned Parenthood AZ Medical Director Doctor Jill Gibson says sometimes privacy itself can be life-saving.
“I’m thinking about a patient that I cared for recently, whose only option to avoid a pregnancy that she couldn't continue was to actually disguise her abortion by pill as a miscarriage. So that her abusive partner didn't harm her or forbid her from controlling her own body.”
Planned Parenthood is addressing competing Federal court rulings, one from Texas, that removed FDA approval from the abortion drug mifepristone—and one from Washington State that said 17 states can continue to offer the drug at least for now because their Attorneys General sued to maintain access.
Arizona is one of those states. So Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has determined the Washington ruling will apply. That means the drug called Mifepristone will continue to be available here.
Planned Parenthood says if Mifepristone use is eventually barred it can still perform chemical abortions using only Misoprostol, the other drug of the two drug protocol but abortions will take longer and the process can be less slightly less effective.
Planned Parenthood director Brittany Fonteno says the idea that a Federal Judge can remove a drugs’s FDA approval— granted 22 years ago—could affect medications beyond the one involved in abortions.
“And so I think that every person in this country should be shaking right now because of the potential impact that this could have on our own medical decisions and care.”
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