Washington-The Biden administration warned on Wednesday that there is a risk of violating federal civil rights law if it refuses to prescribe tablets that could cause an abortion. In states where abortion is currently illegal.
With guidance on page 4, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has checked a range of conditions commonly treated with drugs that can induce abortion, such as miscarriage, gastric ulcer, and ectopic pregnancy. He warned that if such drugs were not dispensed, they could be “discriminatory” based on gender and disability.
Guidance came two days after President Biden’s Minister of Health, Xavier Becerra, instructed the hospital, even in states where abortion is now illegal. Federal law requires doctors to have an abortion For pregnant women who appear in the emergency department when they believe that it is the “necessary stable treatment” to resolve the emergency condition.
Consecutive actions have limited Mr. Biden’s ability to maintain access to abortion after the Supreme Court ruled out constitutional rights to the procedure last month, but he said he would push those restrictions as much as possible. It is clear. In an interview, legal experts on both sides of the matter agreed that the government was trying to claim that federal law would replace the law of the state that banned abortion. This is almost certainly a move that can be challenged in court.
Lawrence O. Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University, said: In guidance for pharmacists, he said, “The obvious goal is to stock abortion medications to treat a variety of medical conditions and make them available for abortion.”
However, the new guidance has been carefully written to avoid telling pharmacies that drugs should be provided for the purpose of abortion by drugs that are banned or restricted in certain states. The guidance also does not mention how a provision of federal law called Church Amendment applies. This measure will prevent healthcare providers, including pharmacists, from carrying out or supporting abortions in the event of religious or moral objections.
The three drugs at issue are mifepristone, misoprostol, and methotrexate, which are often prescribed for other symptoms but can also cause miscarriage. Experts said the administration was responding to reports that women of childbearing age were denied medication after the sentence.
Mifepristone is used to manage certain patients with a hormonal disorder called Cushing’s syndrome, And misoprostol are prescribed for ulcers. However, they are also approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a combination of two drugs that can be taken to abort a pregnancy during the first 10 weeks and can also be used in combination after a miscarriage. increase. Methotrexate is used to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.
“These are very legitimate issues in that they are worried about access to the basic medicines they have received for years just because they are capable of ending pregnancy.” Said Arina Sarganikov, director of women’s health policy. Kaiser Family Foundation.. “It doesn’t sound like they’re blocking this for men.”
The administration’s move has almost certainly been challenged in court, and advocates of the right to abortion have acknowledged that it could be defeated. If a legal objection goes to the Supreme Court, the administration before the same conservative super-majority who voted to overturn the Roe v. Wade case, a groundbreaking proceeding that established the right to abortion in 1973. I have to file the proceedings.
“They are trying to oblige the whole country to stockpile abortion-inducing drugs and carry out abortions using tools that do not authorize the federal government,” Roger, who ran the Civil Rights Bureau within the ministry.・ Severino said. The Department of Health and Human Services when Donald J. Trump was president. “They are trying to shoehorn abortion into a law that is clearly not designed to deal with abortion.”
Wednesday’s actions can put the pharmacist in a messy position. The National Association of Community Pharmacists, representing 19,400 independent pharmacies nationwide, said pharmacists who “act in good faith according to state law” lack “clear progress” and need further guidance from the state. ..
“The state has little clear indication of how pharmacists should proceed in the light of conflicting state and federal legislation,” B. Douglas Hoy, chief executive officer of the organization, said in a statement. “. “It is very unfair to threaten state and federal governments to take positive action against pharmacists trying to serve patients within the new legal boundaries that are still being formed.”
A spokesman for Walgreens, one of the country’s largest pharmacy chains, said the company would consider guidelines. He had no further comments.
In a background call with reporters, a Department of Health and Human Services official said that if state and federal law conflict, federal law will prevail.
Biden is under strong pressure from the Democratic Party and defends reproductive rights to take bold steps to maintain the right to abortion after a court decision at the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Above all, they have urged him to declare a public health emergency — his administration does not seem to want to do so.
Wednesday’s guidance was issued by the Civil Rights Department of the Department of Health.Monday Guidance for hospitals Was accompanied by Letter to healthcare provider, Emergency medical treatment and labor law (known as EMTALA) undertook their responsibilities. This is a 1986 law that requires stable treatment for anyone who comes to the emergency department, regardless of insurance status or solvency.
Severino argued that the guidance to the hospital “brings EMTALA to mind.” This is because the law defines emergency medical care as “a condition in which the lack of immediate medical treatment is reasonably expected to result in a loss of patient health.” (In the case of pregnancy, in the case of a fetus) You are at serious risk. However, Mr. Gostin said that in the case of a pregnant woman suffering, “if she needs to save her life and there is no other way to stabilize her,” the law allowed abortion, and she took the position of government. I took it.
