FDA: Women can take abortion pill later

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY

Women will be able to take the so-called abortion pill later in a pregnancy and with fewer doctor visits under a new federal label for the drug that undermines several state laws aimed at restricting medical abortions.

The Food and Drug Administration notified the manufacturer of the drug Mifeprex in a letter Tuesday that the drug is safe and effective for terminating a pregnancy in accordance with the new label. Also known as mifepristone or the abortion pill, the drug manufactured by Danco Laboratories is used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, to end a pregnancy.

Though abortion providers in most states already are using the protocol outlined in the new label, laws in effect in Ohio, North Dakota and Texas prohibited “off-label” uses of the drug and mandated abortion providers adhere to the older protocol approved in 2000. Similar laws in Arkansas and Oklahoma have been on hold pending legal challenges, while a county judge in Arizona ruled in October that state’s law was unconstitutional.

Under the new label, a smaller dose of mifepristone can be used up to 70 days after the beginning of the last menstrual period instead of the 49-day limit in effect under the old label. Also, the second drug in the protocol, which follows a day or two later, can be taken by a woman at home and not be required to be administered at a clinic, reducing the number of office visits a woman must make.