Washington State’s program is the first, but other states are expected to try allowing pharmacists to prescribe the pills to counter growing efforts to curtail abortion access.. Pharmacists have begun prescribing abortion pills, not simply dispensing them — a development intended to broaden abortion access.. The new effort is small so far — a pilot program in Washington State — but the idea is expected to be tried in other states where abortion remains legal.. “I think it is going to expand, and it is expanding,” said Michael Hogue, chief executive of the American Pharmacists Association, a national professional organization, which is not involved in the new program and does not take a position on abortion.. Many states now allow pharmacists to prescribe a variety of medications, he said, adding that in his organization’s view, it makes sense to have “someone so accessible in a local community be able to provide safe access to therapies that might sometimes be difficult to get.”. Supporters of abortion rights consider pharmacist prescribing part of an effort to open as many avenues as possible at a time when abortion pills are facing growing attacks from abortion opponents.. Pills are now the method used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the United States. But a lawsuit intended to force the Food and Drug Administration to sharply restrict mifepristone, the first pill in the two-drug medication abortion regimen, was recently revived after the Supreme Court turned away the case, saying the original plaintiffs lacked the standing to sue. The Texas attorney general recently sued an abortion provider in New York for sending abortion pills to a patient in Texas. And abortion rights supporters are concerned that a 151-year-old federal anti-vice law known as the Comstock Act could be invoked by the incoming Trump administration to try to prevent the mailing of abortion medication.. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.. Thank you for your patience while we verify access.. Already a subscriber? Log in.. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
