Central Oregon Times

As the deadline for a government shutdown approaches, a group of Republican House members, including Rep. Lori Chavez DeRemer (D-Ore.)  are holding up the nation’s spending bills to maintain President Biden’s executive order expanding access to chemical abortion pills to women and girls nationwide by mail without a medical consultation, even as research shows these pills are more than four times more dangerous than other abortion methods.

According to a report from the Daily Beast, Chavez DeRemer is one of a handful of House Republicans opposed to the amendment that is required to fund the Food and Drug Administration as well as the Department of Agriculture. 

A main point of contention on the bill is a provision that is designed to nullify a Biden administration rule from earlier this year that changed course and allowed mifeprestone, a pill used for chemical abortions, to be sold in retail pharmacies, reported The Hill.

The complication rate for a chemical abortion is four times higher than the complication rate for a surgical abortion, according to a study published in the official journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 

When Mifeprestone was first approved by the FDA, its use was limited to up to seven weeks into the pregnancy and it required three in-person office visits. The first visit was for the first drug, Mifeprestone, the second visit was to administer a second drug, Misoprostol, and the third was to address any complications. The entire process required a doctor’s supervision and a reporting system for serious complications as a result of the drug’s usage. 

Earlier this year, reported the NY Times, the FDA quietly updated its website, but did not make an announcement, to reflect that the drugs could be dispensed at retail pharmacies. 

In June of this year, the Associated Press reported that New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law a measure that would shield NY-based doctors and drug manufacturers from prescribing and shipping abortion pills across state lines and into states where they are outlawed. The law bans local prosecutors and state agencies from assisting in any criminal investigations without a court order. 

Newsweek reported that if the longer-term appropriations bills are not passed by September 30th, a shutdown would begin on October 1st.