It accounts for more than half of all abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive research organization once associated with Planned Parenthood.
In response to the FDA, Burbidge, who became the pro-life chair in November, warned of the dangers to mothers and their unborn children.
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“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.”
The bishop cited a fact sheet by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the national pro-life group SBA Pro-Life America, on the risks and complications of abortion by pill.
“The rate of serious complications after chemical abortion is considerably higher than after surgical abortion,” he cautioned. “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. It may also result in new violations of conscience for pharmacy workers who cannot dispense such drugs.”
The FDA’s new decision comes after the agency warned in November about the dangers of health professionals prescribing mifepristone to women before they are pregnant after it had previously loosened restrictions on the drug.