According to a Reuters-reviewed study, 43% of all abortions managed in 2014 by Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading abortion provider, are medical abortions (that is, non-surgical). Because the US Food & Drug Administration has placed a REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies) designation on one of the drugs (mifepristone), however, it can only be legally obtained in person from a specially licensed abortion provider, rather than through a pharmacy or in the mail. But a clinical trial using telemedical consultations aims to prove that the REMS is unnecessary, and that a woman does not have to set foot in a clinic in order to safely have a medical abortion. The study, run by health-research non-profit Gynuity, is operating in five US states and is the only legal means of obtaining these pills in the mail.
SOURCE: WNYC, by Jessica Miller, 6 November 2018