Will SC restriction on abortion drugs impact other medical treatments?

Managing miscarriages, reducing gastric ulcers, inserting IUDs and treating rheumatoid arthritis are all uses of misoprostol, a pill South Carolina lawmakers want to restrict this year.

Misoprostol, often taken in combination with mifepristone, is also the most common way people in South Carolina have abortions, both before and after the state’s six-week ban on terminating a pregnancy, according to state data and research from abortion advocacy groups.

This year, Republican lawmakers want to restrict mifepristone and misoprostol by reclassifying them as Schedule IV drugs, also called controlled substances, which would make physicians treat the pills like depressants or stimulants, like Xanax. Mifepristone and misoprostol are not controlled substances now.

The proposal also places penalties on people who possess or dispense mifepristone or misoprostol illegally. The bill passed the House 81-31 Wednesday after several hours of debate. It will have to gain approval from the Senate to become law.

“Nobody’s banning a drug that’s still used for stuff,” said state Rep. Melissa Oremus, R-Aiken, Wednesday. “Changing a scheduling of the drug is not banning the drug. It’s just giving it a little bit harder access.”

But rescheduling mifepristone could make it more difficult or create delays for doctors to treat their patients for other conditions, said both individuals testifying against the bill and lawmakers during debates.

“This proposed legislation will not only impede access to this critical medication by changing their DEA schedule, but it will have a chilling effect on their use, which will negatively impact the health of women in South Carolina,” said Patricia Seal, the South Carolina chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and practicing OB-GYN in the state. She testified in front of lawmakers in early January.

Seal told lawmakers OB-GYNs use the medication for a variety of purposes besides starting abortions, including reducing the risk of miscarriage complications and inserting intrauterine devices.

For example, she might give a heavily bleeding patient who just delivered a baby the medication to help their uterus contract regularly. If misoprostol is rescheduled, it would take longer for the patient to receive the treatment, Seal told lawmakers.

“I would have to unscrub, leaving my bleeding patient behind, go place an electronic order in a computer to have medication released, wait for the pharmacy to release it and send it to my patient and then administer it, likely 15 to 20 minutes later than originally planned,” Seal said.

“And during that time, our patient will be continuing to bleed.”

Lawmakers opposing the bill said both men and women use the medications for non-obstetric purposes, like Cushing syndrome or reducing gastric ulcers.

During a debate on the bill Wednesday, state Rep. Spencer Wetmore, D-Charleston, said her colleague, Rep. Michael Rivers, D-Beaufort, used the medication, pointing to the various uses of the pill for both men and women.

“And I’m not pregnant,” Rivers said from his seat.