New CLI Report: Online Abortion Drug Sellers Violating U.S. Law and FDA Safety Limits

81% of Online Abortion Businesses Send Drugs to Women Beyond the FDA’s 10-Week Timeframe

Washington D.C.—A new Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) report discovered many online abortion drug sellers are violating U.S. laws, exceeding FDA safety limits, and selling unapproved and misbranded drugs to U.S. consumers. This blatant disregard for the law was only boosted by the removal of the in-person dispensing requirement in 2021. The report identifies these violations across online sellers operating outside of the U.S. healthcare system as well as the violations committed by online abortion drug sellers operating within the healthcare system.

CLI focused this analysis on Plan C’s website, a popular directory for abortion drug sellers. CLI first identified each organization, center, website, and community network listed on Plan C’s website, including both those inside and outside of the formal U.S. healthcare system. CLI then did an in-depth review of their corresponding websites to learn how the organizations/websites operate, what limitations they place on ordering abortion drugs online (if any), and other information associated with each website.

Key Findings

• Eight online-only organizations are violating pro-life state laws by shipping abortion drugs into those states.
• Of online abortion drug sellers within the formal U.S. healthcare system that publicly report the gestational age at which they will ship abortion drugs, only 19% complied with the FDA’s requirement to not ship the drugs after 70 days’ gestation. This means 64 sellers violated the FDA’s safety limit.
• Of 28 websites the FDA sent abuse letters to in 2019, 10 are still active and breaking federal law by selling unapproved and misbranded abortion drugs to U.S. women.
• Of the 18 foreign websites, none required women to present an ID before ordering abortion drugs. The 17 websites that disclose their products will sell and ship unapproved abortion drugs into the U.S.
• None of the five community networks (community-based groups who give U.S. women free abortion drugs) have a gestational limit at which they will stop sending abortion drugs to U.S. women.

Mia Steupert, research associate at CLI and author of the report, said:

“The abortion industry loves to claim ‘abortion is healthcare,’ but their actions and advocacy have shown they don’t want abortion to be treated with the same level of regulatory scrutiny as legitimate medical procedures. No one should be able to obtain abortion drugs as easily as purchasing something off Amazon. The egregious findings of this paper should serve as a wake-up call to policymakers that a wild west of online abortion drug access only serves to end unborn life at all costs, even at the expense of women’s safety.”

To read the report, click here.

Charlotte Lozier Institute was launched in 2011 as the education and research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. CLI is a hub for research and public policy analysis on some of the most pressing issues facing the United States and nations around the world. The Institute is named for a feminist physician known for her commitment to the sanctity of human life and equal career and educational opportunities for women.

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