Indiana joins new effort to restrict access to abortion pills

Indiana joins new effort to restrict access to abortion pills

As the debate about abortion access continues in federal courts, Indiana is pushing a new regulatory strategy that would treat abortion pills as a drinking water contaminant.

The big picture: Indiana's near-total ban on abortion leaves Hoosier women with limited access, but opponents have sought to shut loopholes in the law, including mailing abortion-inducing drugs.

  • Teleprescribing and mailing of abortion drugs now account for more than 60% of all abortions in the health system.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to abortion opponents last month when it indefinitely extended a freeze on strict new restrictions for dispensing the widely used abortion pill mifepristone while an underlying legal fight over the drug plays out.

    • Driving the news: Last week, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita signed onto a letter requesting that the EPA add mifepristone to other pharmaceuticals included on the Contaminant Candidate List, potentially leading to stricter regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

  • The letter argues that the FDA's loosening of regulations around mifepristone usage — such as in-person dispensing and checkup requirements — increased the number of chemical abortions occurring in homes to the point that "tons of chemically tainted medical waste [is] being flushed into American waterways."

    • Reality check: There's little evidence that the drug poses a water-safety risk.

  • "There is absolutely no evidence that this is an environmental issue," Nathan Donley, the environmental health science director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Politifact in 2023, when Students for Life made similar claims about mifepristone in wastewater.
  • "Pharmaceutical waste can be a big issue when we're talking about widely used drugs, but to somehow point to mifepristone as a bad actor here is completely disingenuous."
  • There were an estimated 1,126,000 abortions in the U.S. last year, a figure that's remained fairly stable since 2023.

    • What they're saying: "Mifepristone is safe, effective, and FDA-approved," Danielle Drake, advocacy manager for the ACLU of Indiana, said in a statement. "Trying to restrict it through baseless environmental claims is not about public health. It is about intimidation, control, and inserting the government into decisions that belong to people and their doctors."

    Zoom out: The lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court's stay was originally brought by Louisiana against the FDA to challenge those rules that expanded access to mifepristone by removing the requirement that patients see a provider in person before getting the medication.

    What's next: The Supreme Court did not agree to hear the underlying legal arguments immediately, instead sending the case back to the 5th Circuit.

  • The case will likely end up back at the Supreme Court again soon.