22 AGs Blast Joe Biden for Turning Pharmacies Into Abortion Centers

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 16, 2023   |   4:26PM   |   Washington, DC

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and 22 state attorneys general have blasted Joe Biden’s recent ruling from his FDA that essentially turns pharmacies into abortion centers. They are calling on the Food and Drug Administration to reverse its rule change permitting the distribution of abortion drugs through retail pharmacies.

As LifeNews reported, the FDA will allow pharmacies to sell the dangerous abortion drug that has killed millions of babies and injured thousands of women. Previously, mifepristone could only be dispensed by clinics, medical offices, and hospitals or under the supervision of a licensed physician.

Following the decision, Walgreens and CVS announced they will sell the abortion drug that has killed millions of babies.

In a letter dated January 13, the state attorneys general note, ““The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to abandon commonsense restrictions on remotely prescribing and administering abortion-inducing drugs is both illegal and dangerous. In direct contravention of longstanding FDA practice and congressional mandate, the FDA’s rollback of important safety restrictions ignores both women’s health and straightforward federal statutes. We urge you to reverse your decision.”

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The letter also declares, “Though the FDA has abdicated its responsibility to protect women’s health, we have not. To be crystal clear, you have not negated any of our laws that forbid the remote prescription, administration, and use of abortion-inducing drugs. The health and safety of our citizens—women and children included—is of paramount concern. Nothing in the FDA’s recent changes affects how we will protect our people.”

In reference to Biden’s decision, suggesting abortion drugs can be mailed to states with laws restricting such practice, the letter notes:

“Aside from ignoring the health of women and the lives of unborn children, your decision ignores the plain text of federal law. Federal law has long provided that: ‘Every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion … [i]s declared to be nonmailable matter and shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or by any letter carrier.’ 18 U.S.C. § 1461. To be sure, the Biden Justice Department recently tried to invent an exception to the law, opining that the law ‘is narrower than a literal reading might suggest.’ 46 Op. O.L.C. __ (slip op. at 5). But the statute couldn’t be plainer, and it is no suggestion: a violation is a felony that carries five years’ imprisonment. And yet, you now encourage physicians to facilitate remote abortions and pharmacies to order and provide abortion drugs.”

Shortly after the FDA announced its rule change on January 3, Rokita issued this statement: “Indiana law prohibits abortion-inducing drugs from being administered by anyone other than a physician in person. It is illegal for pharmacies to permit the sale of mifepristone in Indiana. The Office of the Attorney General reminded pharmacists of this last year and it remains true today.”

Leading pro-life groups are also upset with Biden for this aboriton promotion.

“We applaud Attorney General Rokita for standing firm in defending Indiana law against this dangerous overstep by the FDA and DOJ,” states Mike Fichter, president and CEO of Indiana Right to Life. “Indiana fought hard to secure its pro-life laws, and we’re not about to let them get stripped away by federal actions undermining states’ rights to establish and enforce abortion policy.”

The FDA has already lifted its in-person requirement for a doctor visit which is a medical necessity because taking the abortion pill in a variety of situations such as an ectopic pregnancy can be fatal for women. The decision will set up the ability of customers to purchase the abortion pill via teleconference — denying women the doctor’s visit they should be getting to avoid potential death or major complications.

In November, a watchdog organization sued the Biden administration for information about its decision to expand use of the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone.

The lawsuit from Judicial Watch accuses the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of repeatedly ignoring its requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act.

The organization requested documents about recent research and testing of the abortion drug mifepristone, as well as correspondence between HHS and the drug manufacturers, DANCO and GenBio. In December 2021, the Biden administration began allowing abortion groups to sell the drug through the mail without any direct patient contact.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said they believe Biden officials did not appropriately review evidence about the abortion drug before expanding its use last year.

“It is outrageous that Judicial Watch has had to sue in federal court for basic safety information about the abortion pill, which is being pushed on women by a desperate pro-abortion movement,” Fitton said.

Judicial Watch submitted three requests for information from the Biden administration in February but never received a response, according to the lawsuit.

Fitton said women especially deserve to know if the abortion drug is as safe and effective as its proponents claim.

“The Biden administration wants the pill to have wide access, so anything that threatens that agenda will be kept secret,” he told Fox News this week. “If this pill is as important as the Biden administration suggests, then American women have the right to as much information as possible on its safety and efficacy.”

First approved under the Clinton administration, mifepristone is used to abort unborn babies up to about 10 weeks of pregnancy – although some abortion groups want to use it later. It works by blocking the hormone progesterone and basically starving the unborn baby to death. Typically, abortion groups also prescribe a second drug, misoprostol, to induce labor and expel the baby’s body.

Mifepristone is used for more than half of all abortions in the United States, according to a report from the Guttmacher Institute. In 2020, the drug was responsible for 54 percent of all unborn babies’ abortion deaths, up from 39 percent in 2017, the pro-abortion research group found.

Growing research indicates the drug is not safe for mothers either.

In the United States, the FDA has linked mifepristone to at least 26 women’s deaths and 4,000 serious complications between 2000 and 2018. However, under President Barack Obama, the FDA stopped requiring that non-fatal complications from mifepristone be reported. So the numbers almost certainly are much higher.

Studies indicate the risks are more common than what abortion activists often claim, with as many as one in 17 women requiring hospital treatment. A recent study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute found that the rate of abortion-related emergency room visits by women taking the abortion drug increased more than 500 percent between 2002 and 2015.

In England, which began allowing mail-order abortion drugs around the same time as the U.S., new investigations show a huge increase in ambulance calls and reports of coercion and abuse. There also have been reports of late-term babies being born alive at home as a result of mail-order abortion drugs because their mothers did not realize how far along they were.

With mail-order abortions, doctors say life-threatening pregnancy complications may go undetected. Dr. Christina Francis of the American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs told Aleteia recently that a woman may take the abortion drugs with an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy and then mistake warning signs as symptoms of the abortion.

“I can tell you from personal experience caring for women who have ruptured ectopic pregnancies that within just a few hours they can go from feeling fine to being in hemorrhagic shock and facing death, so if you get this delay in care because she’s sitting at home thinking ‘Oh, they told me I was going to have some pain; they told me I was going to have some bleeding, and it’s all very normal,’ she doesn’t seek care,” Francis said.

Coercion and abuse also are concerns. LifeNews has reported a number of stories in recent years about sex traffickers, abusive partners and parents forcing or tricking pregnant women and girls into aborting their unborn babies. A midwife with the abortion chain MSI Reproductive Health recently told the BBC that recognizing coercion is a big problem among abortion providers, and the new mail-order abortion practice makes it even worse.