Blue state’s abortion-pill shield law harms women by depriving follow-up care, pro-life docs say

FIRST ON FOX: A pro-life medical group is urging New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to reverse course on a recently passed state law that shields the identities of healthcare providers who prescribe and mail the abortion pill mifepristone.

In a letter to Hochul on Wednesday, the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG) said the law “recklessly endangers” patients who cannot follow up with their provider in the case of complications.

“Concealing doctors’ identity recklessly endangers the patients we’re meant to serve,” the group wrote. “It compounds the risks of telehealth prescription of mifepristone without in-person consultations, and the barriers it creates to identifying prescribing physicians could mean the difference between life and death for patients.”

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law in February a measure shielding doctors’ identities who prescribe the abortion pill. (Getty Images)

Contact with the prescribing physician is an essential component of any follow-up care, the OBGYNs wrote, “which is so common and necessary with mifepristone that it was required as part of the original FDA approval.” 

“Many irresponsibly understate the risks of drug-induced abortions, but the dangers for women who take it are all too real,” the group wrote.

The group appealed for reconsidering the law, stating, “This new law makes doctors less accessible to the patients they’re serving” and “erects hurdles for patients with follow-up questions.” They also warned it could introduce “time-consuming and potentially fatal roadblocks” to consultations in cases of complications.

Mifepristone, the most commonly used medication for medical abortions for up to 10 weeks gestation, is the first combination of an oral abortion. A second medication, misoprostol, is usually taken 24 to 48 hours later to expel the fetus. A dozen states have passed laws in the last year to restrict access to abortion pills.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is pictured next to Mifepristone tablets. (Getty Images/AP Images)

“Women taking the drug may require transfusion, develop sepsis, or need surgery to complete their abortion,” the OBGYNs wrote. 

“The rate of complication for drug-induced abortion is four times higher than for surgical abortions. In fact, 2.9-4.6 percent of patients taking the drug will need to be seen in the emergency room, as happened in the case of the Louisiana patient reported days before New York enacted its legislation.”

AAPLOG Action Executive Director Rebecca Weaver told Fox News Digital the law is “essentially allowing pro- abortion states to override the pro-life states …  and allowing the mailing of the abortion drugs.”

“It’s kind of overriding and undercutting what Dobbs was prescribing to move forward after the overturning of Roe,” Weaver said. 

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AAPLOG says the New York law harms women by shielding the identities of doctors who prescribe them drugs, thereby making follow-up care difficult if not impossible. (iStock)

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Hochul signed the legislation into law in early February following the indictment of New York physician Margaret Carpenter, her company and an associate by a grand jury in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. They were accused of using telemedicine to prescribe abortion pills to a minor who suffered complications.

The New York law, effective immediately, allows providers’ names to be omitted from abortion pill packaging and bottles and instead replaced with the name of their healthcare practice. 

Louisiana authorities discovered the doctor’s identity after it was found on the abortion pill label.

“After today, that will no longer happen,” Hochul said at the bill signing.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Hochul’s office for comment.