

The Biden administration has lifted restrictions on telemedicine abortion for the remainder of the pandemic, according to Politico reporter Alice Ollstein.
A longtime Food and Drug Administration regulation has mandated that mifepristone—one of two drugs typically involved in medication abortion—be dispensed in person, at a hospital or clinic, even though the pills can be self-administered safely at home. (And in fact, the entire process of the actual passing of the pregnancy usually occurs there.) Under the rule, people seeking medication abortions had to travel just as far as they would if they were getting an in-clinic procedure, which for most people is pretty far. In 2014, roughly 90 percent of counties had no abortion clinic, and 39 percent of women of reproductive age lived in one of those counties.