(Washington Examiner) While the Biden administration has been making hard lefts at every turn, the state of Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to sail straight ahead. This has been in education and immigration policy, and I am now watching it play out in terms of chemical abortion policy.
From my vantage point on the front lines of pregnancy care in Florida, and in my considered medical opinion, Florida law protects women, whereas recent attempts at federal deregulation expose them to grave medical risks.
Biden’s Food and Drug Administration recently deregulated the abortion drug mifepristone to the extent of allowing its prescription through telemedicine and dispensation of these drugs by pharmacies across state lines.
Chemical abortion is now, according to the CDC, the most common method of abortion in the U.S. The Biden administration is upset that the laws of many states, including Florida, still require these powerful drugs to be dispensed in person by a qualified physician. A presidential memorandum even directs the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security to find a way to force the states’ hands.
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The FDA’s decision to deregulate abortion pills has come in response to political pressure from the abortion industry and attempts to make an end run around patient-protection laws in states like Florida. Our state laws require that abortions be performed by qualified physicians who have physically examined the patient, determined the location and age of the embryo or fetus, and who are responsible for appropriate follow-up in case of minor and major complications.
My own everyday work experience with pregnant women validates the decision of health authorities in Florida to require extra care. These protections, for example, can help detect the abuse and trafficking of minor girls and ensure that women have appropriate support throughout pregnancy. But Florida’s regulations in particular guard against two life-threatening complications.
Every day I read ultrasounds done for the purpose of “dating a pregnancy.” While counting back to the first day of the last menstrual period accurately determines the age of a fetus, it is surprisingly hard to do. Irregular menses, simple inattention, and the spotting that accompanies implantation of an embryo, make the “unsure of LMP” legend all too common on my history sheets. Women are constantly surprised to learn that they are 13 weeks pregnant when they were sure they couldn’t be more than eight. But one of the most important parts of my report is the location of the fetus. If the fetus is not within the uterus — that is, if the fetus is ectopic — it constitutes a true medical emergency. The mother is sent straight to the emergency room to await her obstetrician’s care.
These two determinations — age and location of the fetus — cannot be measured by telemedicine. They require an ultrasound, which Florida law requires before an abortion can be performed. FDA guidance currently says chemical abortion is only safe for the mother early in pregnancy — up to 10 weeks. After that, the baby is too large and his or her blood supply too well established for an abortion without immediate medical supervision to be safe for a woman. Relying only on what she thinks is her LMP, a woman or girl may attempt a chemical abortion at 11 weeks of pregnancy or later, possibly resulting in an incomplete abortion. Will she know to go to the emergency room for a follow-up surgical abortion to finish removing the placenta and avoid fatal sepsis? Unlikely.
In the case of ectopic pregnancy, the danger is even greater. There is no way for a woman to know that her embryo has lodged outside her uterus. Only an ultrasound can reveal this fatal complication of pregnancy. Taking mifepristone while pregnant with an ectopic embryo can result in (and has been documented to result in) maternal death due to copious bleeding in the peritoneal cavity.
I found it heartening to hear DeSantis defend Florida women against the Biden FDA’s reckless decision to deregulate abortion drugs. In our state, a woman can have a legal abortion, chemical or surgical, for any reason through the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. But here, she will be far safer than a woman in, say, California or Vermont. National pharmacy chains cannot possibly give her the follow-up care or direction that she needs. Neither will the unscrupulous and inattentive telehealth “practitioners” that litter the internet. Florida and states with similar protections will.
Editor's note: Grazie Pozo Christie, M.D. is a Senior Fellow for The Catholic Association. This article was published by the Washington Examiner and is reprinted with permission.
