The Food and Drug Administration was absolutely right to re-label mifepristone, a drug used to induce abortions, to reflect a regimen already adopted by doctors.

The FDA – which hadn’t changed its guidelines on the drug since it was approved for medication-induced abortions in 2000 – now calls for a substantially lower dose of the drug to be administered, and extends the time into pregnancy when it can be used.

The agency also now suggests that a second drug used along with mifepristone to complete the process be taken a day or two later by the woman at home rather than in a doctor’s office.

The new guidelines also recommend that qualified healthcare providers, not just doctors, be allowed to dispense the drugs.

That’s the way doctors have been using the drugs for years, saying that the process was safe and efficient and had fewer adverse effects than what the FDA had recommended on the old label.

The agency’s move presents an interesting situation for states that have passed laws in recent years mandating that doctors performing medication-induced abortions follow the FDA protocols.

In Arizona, the governor has before him a bill that instructs doctors to follow the FDA guidelines that were in place at the end of 2015. In other words, the bill before him instructs doctors to follow an outdated method of medication-induced abortion. That’s absurd. The bill should be vetoed.

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