More than two-thirds of Americans support reinstating the abortion pill’s in-person medical visit requirement, the longtime Food and Drug Administration safety protocol that was jettisoned during the Biden administration.
A CRC Research poll released Wednesday found that 67% of likely voters favor a return to the required in-person dispensing of abortion pills, which “allowed for medical professionals to evaluate a woman’s medical condition before the drugs were dispensed.”
The breakdown included 63% of Democrats and 66% of women, as well as 69% of men and 72% of Republicans, according to the survey conducted for the conservative 85 Fund.
In addition, 70% of likely voters surveyed agreed with having in-person medical evaluations before and after taking the pill to “minimize the risk of medical complications and ensure they have ongoing care,” including 66% of Democrats and 75% of Republicans.
The polling comes with pro-life groups prodding the Food and Drug Administration to restore safeguards on mifepristone, one of two drugs used in the abortion-pill protocol, arguing that scrapping the in-person requirement has increased risks for women.
David Bereit, executive director of the Life Leadership Conference, said the polling shows that a “broad consensus exists around the dangers of mail-order abortion drugs and the risks they pose to women’s health and safety.”
He added in a statement, “A majority of Americans, across the political spectrum, express serious concern that eliminating in-person medical oversight increases the likelihood of complications, coercion, and undetected abuse. These findings point to a clear mandate for the FDA to take action now and restore the commonsense in-person dispensing policy. Their continued failure to act disregards the will of the people and continues to put women and babies in danger.”
The Trump administration has been accused of dragging its feet on the mifepristone issue to avoid inflaming the abortion issue ahead of the midterms, but the survey found that voters see the safeguards as a plus.
The poll found that 49% of voters would be less likely to support a candidate who favors allowing mifepristone to be prescribed online and delivered by mail without a medical examination, a figure that included 59% of Republicans and 48% of independents.
Only 29% of those polled said they would likely back a candidate who favors the current online regimen.
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The loosened rules have fueled the booming online abortion-pill business, increasing options for women in states with tight abortion restrictions, but also paved the way for abuses, including men obtaining the pills to slip into their pregnant wives’ and girlfriends’ drinks.
Skipping the in-person medical visit also adds guesswork to the baby’s gestational age — the FDA says the pills should be used to abort pregnancies of 10 weeks’ gestation or less — and makes it impossible to detect a potentially lethal ectopic pregnancy.
A Georgia woman who used pills to terminate her pregnancy was charged with murder this month for giving birth to a premature baby who lived for about an hour and died. The baby’s gestational age was estimated at 22-24 weeks, but the woman told police she did not know how far along her pregnancy was.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the polling shows “this is an urgent public health and safety crisis that demands a return to common sense.”
She added in a statement, “Ahead of midterms, pro-life Republicans must act and speak out boldly about stopping the mail-order abortion drug crisis. The worst option is to take the ‘ostrich strategy,’ say nothing and hope to deal with the problem down the road, if at all. Sitting on the fence makes no voters happier — it is a sure-fire recipe for avoidable losses this November.”
