By Cheryl Sullenger

Washington, D.C – The U.S. Supreme Court has restored a Food and Drug Administration rule that requires women to report to a hospital, clinic, or doctor’s office in order to receive abortion-inducing drugs, thanks to an appeal by the Trump Administration.

This order will essentially end the distribution of abortion pills, Mifepristone and Misoprostol, through the mail – a practice that burgeoned in the U.S. during the China Virus pandemic only because of the suspension of the FDA rule.

The rule had been temporarily suspended by a lower court at the request of the pro-abortion American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), citing the need to limit personal interaction due to the China Virus.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the brief one-and-a-half-page order for the majority. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagen, and Stephen Breyer opposed the ruling. [Read it here.]

“This ruling will end the practice of distributing dangerous abortion drugs to unsecured mail boxes. We thank the Trump Administration for fighting to restore this common-sense safety precaution,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.  “The China Virus has led to many abuses in this nation, and this is one that has now been corrected.”

Yesterday’s decision should end at least two abortion businesses that popped up last year, Just the Pill, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Choix in California.  Neither operates a brick-and-mortar facility, but conducts all business over the internet.  The pills are then delivered to customers by mail. Both businesses were only allowed to distribute the abortion pills within state boundaries.

There are obvious safety issues with this scheme.  Anyone with access to the woman’s mailbox may be able to access the dangerous drugs, including children.  Also, in the event of complications, which are suffered by approximately seven percent of women who take the drugs, the women must be referred to an actual facility or make their own way to an emergency room, instead of being cared for by the prescribing person.

The most common complication is incomplete abortions, which usually require a surgical procedure to resolve.

Before the pandemic, Planned Parenthood facilities were engaged in an experimental program in conjunction with depopulation advocates at Gynuity Health Projects, which distributed abortion drugs by mail.  That program, which had limited approval by the FDA, began in 2016 and is currently operating in five states: Hawaii, Oregon, Washington State, New York, and Maine.  The impact of yesterday’s ruling on that program is currently unknown.

Also yesterday, Ohio became the nineteenth state to prohibit the use of telemedicine for the distribution of abortion drugs.  These states instead require that women first visit a licensed physician before receiving the pills.