US abortion lobby enlists pharmacists for ‘pills-by-post scheme’

Pharmacists are being trained to dispense abortion pills via telehealth in an attempt to expand access to abortions in the US.

In a collaboration between activist group Uplift International and pills-by-post distributer Honeybee Health, ten pharmacists in Washington state have recently prescribed abortions to 43 people by post.

The programme is expected to be trialled in other pro-abortion states, and some — including Oregon, Delaware and Illinois — already permit people who are not doctors to perform abortions.

‘Not health care’

Dr Ingrid Skop, Vice President of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said: “Pharmacists, who do not receive clinical training, should not be distributing these dangerous drugs.”

By “pushing these medically unsupervised abortions”, she said, the US Food and Drug Administration and abortion activists are “chipping away at medical standards for women seeking abortion. This is not health care.”

Campaign group Students for Life Action warned: “Without proper screening for blood type or by ultrasound, women’s lives and future fertility are at risk”.

It also feared that “without in-person verification, abusers can get chemical abortion pills to use against women without their knowledge or consent. Pharmacists are not set up for that.”

Rising danger

US pro-abortion organisation Society of Family Planning has reported a dramatic rise in ‘telehealth abortions’ since the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v Wade, which returned abortion law to state legislatures.

Its most recent report documented an increase in telehealth abortions from 22,430 in the second quarter of 2023, to 57,150 in the second quarter of 2024 — a rise of 155 per cent. In March 2024, telehealth abortions accounted for 20 per cent of all abortions.

In the UK, the Government has been urged to ban pills-by-post abortions, after a woman was deliberately poisoned with abortion pills to kill her 15-week-old baby.

Last year, Norwich Crown Court found Stuart Worby guilty of spiking the anonymous woman’s drink in August 2022, which caused a miscarriage just hours later. A female friend pleaded guilty to supplying him with the pills, which she obtained following a phone consultation with abortion provider The Gynae Centre.