Delia A. Deschaine, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in the Bloomberg Law Daily Labor Report, in “Employers Pause Plans to Make Abortion Pills Easier to Access,” by Sara Hansard and Celine Castronuovo. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
Employers that had been considering expanding how their health plans cover the abortion drug mifepristone to make it easier to get are putting those plans on hold as they watch a legal challenge that has reached the US Supreme Court …
But that was before an April 7 order by the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas that sought to block the drug’s sale by overturning its FDA approval. That decision, along with an April 12 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that allowed the drug to continue to be sold but blocked it from being sold through the mail, appears to have put those plans on hold …
Blocking mail-order sales of mifepristone, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000, would make it more difficult for users to get the drug. Virtual clinics provided 11% of all abortions in December 2022, according to a report by the Society of Family Planning. That figure doesn’t include brick-and-mortar clinics that also mail mifepristone.
The Justice Department has asked the US Supreme Court to intervene. Justice Samuel Alito put a five-day hold on the Fifth Circuit’s restrictions until the high court has more time to decide how to handle the Biden administration’s request for a longer delay. Alito’s hold is due to expire at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday. …
‘Hitting Pause’ …
Attorney Delia Ann Deschaine, a member of Epstein Becker Green, said in an interview that many health-care providers are likely to respond to a possible halt on mifepristone sales by moving to using misoprostol-only for abortions. Misoprostol currently is prescribed with mifepristone, but providers believe it can be used by itself safely and effectively, she said.
Misoprostol is approved by the FDA and is currently prescribed off-label for medication-induced abortions, Deschaine said. “That may be impactful to employers or plans or insurers” grappling with abortion coverage, Deschaine said.