An important legal challenge in the United States this week has highlighted concerns about the risks of obtaining abortion pills without an in-person medical consultation. On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments in Louisiana v. FDA, which challenges the federal government’s removal of safeguards governing mifepristone.
At the centre of the case is Rosalie Markezich, a young Louisiana woman who says her boyfriend pressured and coerced her into taking abortion drugs he obtained online. Because they were obtained remotely, there was no in-person consultation where a healthcare provider could have assessed her circumstances or identified the coercion.
The case also challenges a series of FDA decisions that progressively relaxed mifepristone safeguards. During COVID-19, the FDA stopped enforcing the in-person dispensing requirement and, in 2023, formally removed it, allowing certified pharmacies to dispense the drug and send it by mail.
The case has particular relevance in Ireland, where the Government likewise approved telemedicine ‘at home’ abortion, ending the in-person dispensing requirement and making it easier for abusive men to obtain abortion pills and coerce their partners into taking them.
The Pro Life Campaign and others have repeatedly warned the Government about this danger over the past five years. Those warnings were especially significant given that, earlier this year, a number of men were charged and sentenced to prison in Ireland for coercing partners into taking abortion pills, as widely reported in the media.
The Government’s lack of vigilance and interest in this issue is shocking. Markezich’s case is both important and timely, and is likely to prompt further legal challenges – not only in the U.S., but also on this side of the Atlantic.