The Vermont Legislature passed reproductive and transgender health care bills Thursday with a final addition aimed at protecting access to a drug widely used in abortions even if the US Food and Drug Administration withdraws approval. its in the pill, mifepristone.
The bills protect providers from discipline for providing legally protected abortion and transgender medical services. Lawmakers recently included medicated abortion in the definition of legally protected reproductive health care services, and believe the state is the first to do so.
In identical bills passed by the House and Senate, “reproductive health care services” include “medication approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the termination of pregnancy beginning January 1, 2023, regardless of current status of FDA approval of the drug. .”
VERMONT CONTINUES LEGAL PROTECTION FOR ABORTION PROVIDERS, TRANS PROCEDURES
Last week, the US Supreme Court upheld women’s access to drugs, rejecting lower court restrictions as a lawsuit continues. The justices granted emergency requests from the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, maker of mifepristone, appealing a lower court’s decision in Texas to reinstate the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.
If FDA approval is revoked, drug companies will no longer be able to sell the drug, said Vermont state Sen. Virginia Lyons, a Democrat.
The Vermont Legislature has voted to establish legal protections for transgender procedures and the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke, File)
“But production can still take place and they can be purchased for use by pharmacists or providers. So it’s still available but what it does is it says, with or without FDA approval, the drug that it’s available to people in the state of Vermont. And that’s a big deal,” Lyons said.
The FDA said it had no immediate comment Thursday.
Greer Donley, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who is an expert on abortion law, said states cannot allow drugs that are prohibited by the federal government. But that doesn’t mean the federal government will enforce its ban if states go their own way.
VERMONT SENATE PASSES BILL PROTECTING PROVIDERS OF ABORTIONS, TRANS PROCEDURES FROM LEGAL ACTION
The US has not intervened, in general, when states have legalized medical cannabis, even though it is not federally legal. There are lawsuits challenging states that have banned abortion pills.
“The question of whether the federal food and drug law is not only the floor but also the ceiling is a very hot and unsettled question in food and drug law,” Donley said.
Earlier this month, Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark joined a multi-state coalition challenging a federal judge’s decision in Texas that revoked the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. Abortion opponents filed a lawsuit in Texas in November, asserting that the original FDA approval of mifepristone 23 years ago and subsequent changes were flawed.
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Women seeking to terminate their pregnancies in the first 10 weeks without a more invasive surgical abortion can take mifepristone, along with misoprostol. The FDA has eased the terms of use of mifepristone in recent years, including allowing it to be shipped by mail to states that allow access.
