2023-04-19 18:42:00
KYIV. April 19. UNN. France risks facing shortages of abortion pills as US states stock up amid an intensifying legal and political battle over reproductive rights. AFP writes about it, informs UNN.
Details
France gets most of its abortion drugs from a mostly US-owned manufacturer, and supplies are already struggling due to a shortage of raw materials.
In addition, US states are “building up stocks to mitigate the effects of a possible suspension of the production or sale of mifepristone and misoprostol,” France’s High Council for Gender Equality (HCE) said on Tuesday.
“The American situation creates a risk of deficit,” the organization said.
Abortion pills account for about 70 percent of abortions in France.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Wednesday over a lower court’s finding that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrongly approved the use of mifepristone in 2000, sparking legal chaos in the reproductive health care.
The case is part of a broader campaign by conservatives against abortion rights after the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed access to abortion.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron promised last month that he would soon introduce a law enshrining the right to abortion in the constitution.
Production delays
The NGO Observatory for the Transparency of Medicines Policy (OTMeds) warned a few weeks ago that it was difficult or impossible to get misoprostol from some pharmacies in several cities and regions, including Paris.
Health Minister Francois Brown insisted on Wednesday that women everywhere could access misoprostol, telling RMC broadcaster that there was a three-month supply and no shortage. He added that even where the drug is not available in pharmacies, medical centers that offer abortions always have stocks.
Medicines authority ANSM said on Tuesday that US-based manufacturer Nordic Pharma, which supplies all of the misoprostol to France, warned it late last year of production delays for one of its brands, Gymiso.
The production of another brand of misoprostol, Misoone, faced a shortage of raw materials.
Let’s add
During the winter, France suffered from shortages of other medicines, including antibiotics such as amoxicillin.
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