Iowans as of July 1 will require an in-person physician’s appointment before receiving abortion pills following the passage of a state law in an effort to prevent women from obtaining the drugs online.
The new law comes as anti-abortion advocacy groups are pushing the Food and Drug Administration to reverse its 2022 decision to remove in-person screening requirements for the abortion pill mifepristone, allowing the drug to be sold online and shipped in the mail to patients.
Nearly two in three abortions in the United States involve mifepristone, the first in a two-part chemical abortion protocol, making access to the medication the largest issue in the national abortion debate following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
Elective abortions are legal in Iowa only up to six weeks of gestation, before some women know that they are pregnant. The FDA says the drug is only safe until 10 weeks of pregnancy, after which time the risk of complications significantly increases.
Anti-abortion advocates contend that laws such as Iowa’s requiring in-person visits before dispensing the medication are necessary to protect women by ensuring the pregnancy is less than 10 weeks and that it is not an ectopic pregnancy.
