Abortion

Arizona’s Outdated Medication Abortion Law Meets Its End

New research on a similar law in Ohio, which also forced doctors to follow outdated FDA labeling, showed that patients experienced twice as many side effects and were three times as likely to need additional treatment to end their pregnancies.

Arizona doctors won't be forced to follow outdated labeling for medication abortion that has been shown to make patients to throw up in clinic parking lots. Shutterstock

Arizona doctors won’t be forced to follow outdated labeling for medication abortion that has been shown to make patients throw up in clinic parking lots.

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Republican-backed restrictions, which never went into effect. The 2012 law required doctors to administer medication abortion under obsolete U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America had filed a federal challenge and successfully blocked the law in court. After the FDA updated its labeling this year, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) repealed the measure, making the court case moot.

The law, signed by former Gov. Jan Brewer (R), aimed to severely curb the use of medication abortion by barring Arizona doctors from prescribing the two-pill regime after seven weeks of pregnancy, among other restrictions.

Advocates, who had called the law unconstitutional, cheered the dismissal of the court case.

“These baseless, unscientific restrictions should never have been enacted in the first place,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

Medication abortion accounts for nearly half of terminations in Arizona, which is higher than the national average, advocates said. New research on a similar law in Ohio, which also forced doctors to follow outdated FDA labeling, showed that patients experienced twice as many side effects and were three times as likely to need additional treatment to end their pregnancies.

Some patients needed another dose of medication because severe nausea caused them to throw up the first dosage—sometimes in the clinic parking lot.

Medication abortion has long been a target of GOP legislators in Arizona and the state’s chief anti-choice group, known as the Center for Arizona Policy.

Cathi Herrod, CEO of the center, expressed her frustration this year after the FDA updated the medication abortion labeling, making it available up to ten weeks, and at a lower dosage and with fewer doctor visits.

“We’re not saying we’re OK with what the FDA did,” Herrod told the Arizona Republic in April. Herrod said she was concerned for the health and safety of Arizona women.