Case: 23-10362 Document: 543-1 Page: 31 Date Filed: 08/16/2023
increase the maximum permissible age from forty-nine days to seventy days. See Dr. Skop Declaration ¶ 28 (asserting that taking mifepristone at later stages of gestation increases the chance of “complications due to the increased amount of tissue, leading to hemorrhage, infection and/or the need for surgeries or other emergency care”); see also Dr. Barrows Declaration ¶ 22; Dr. Wozniak Declaration ¶ 10.
Second, the percentage of women who experience complications that present to the emergency room (as opposed to their mifepristone provider) will increase because the Amendments remove the requirement for a second and third in-person visit. One doctor explained this phenomenon:
Under the current practice by those who prescribe and dispense chemical abortion drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol, there is no follow-up or additional care provided to patients. Instead, with no established relationship with a physician, patients are simply left to report to the emergency room when they experience adverse events.
Dr. Foley Declaration ¶ 11; see also Dr. Harrison Declaration ¶ 44 (testifying that eliminating in-person evaluations and follow-up care “places our member doctors at increased risk of being forced to violate their conscience rights”); Dr. Frost-Clark Declaration ¶ 21 (similar).
Third, and relatedly, the percentage of women who present to the emergency room will increase because the Amendments allow non-physicians to prescribe mifepristone. As the motions panel explained, women who receive the drug from someone other than a doctor “cannot possibly go back to their non-doctor-prescribers for surgical abortions.” All. for Hippocratic Med., 2023 WL 2913725, at *5. And multiple doctors testified that they have seen or expect to see more women with serious complications resulting from mifepristone. Dr. Harrison Declaration ¶ 26; Dr. Skop Declaration ¶¶ 20–21; Dr. Wozniak Declaration ¶¶ 18, 29; Dr. Johnson Declaration ¶ 18; Dr.
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