The morning shows of ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN saw nothing controversial about the FDA’s new policy that allows pharmacies to provide abortion pills to anyone with a prescription.
The cast of CNN This Morning spent the most time on the matter as. Co-host Poppy Harlow kicked things off with an announcement, “the FDA is announcing a big move on access to abortion. We're talking about the pill or the medication for it. This comes, of course, after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. What's changed is that pharmacies, like your average pharmacy is now able to sell these abortion pills to people who have a prescription.”
She then introduced medical correspondent Dr. Tara Narula, who responded favorably to the news:
Yeah, so this is basically meant to medically induce an abortion and as you said this is probably going to expand access to many, many women, making it much easier, if they want, to be able to get these pills by going to, potentially, their local pharmacy. And so historically in order to get access a woman had to go in-person to a doctor's office, hospital, or clinic and get that drug right there.
Narula also hyped that “but now the FDA is saying you don't have to go in person, number one, and number two, you could potentially go to any of these brick and mortar pharmacies who fill out, essentially, paperwork to make themselves certified.”
After saying it remains unknown if big chains will provide the drugs, Narula repeated her earlier claim, “But what we may see as well is more doctors being willing to prescribe these drugs because they don't need to stock the drugs in their office, so it’s definitely going to become easier for a lot of women.”
Co-host Don Lemon then claimed to have seen an ad for the drug which was met with disbelief from Narula who promptly ignored Lemon’s foggy memory and concluded:
So this, yeah, this is basically we're talking about a two-drug regimen when we know medication induced abortions are actually responsible for half of the abortions in the country. So, they’ve kind of overtaken surgical abortions. And basically we’re talking about the first drug, mifepristone, in a two-drug regimen, it’s that first drug that was difficult to get and you can take that up to 10 weeks and this drug’s been around since 2000 so this is really a big change for a lot of women.
The move clearly had an ideological motive, which means there is another perspective on the matter, but CNN did not provide that perspective. Nor did NBC’s Today, or CBS This Morning in their brief reports.
ABC’s Good Morning America devoted a more complete segment to the matter and lamented that the rule will not be relevant everywhere, “But the new rule also opens the door for a fresh round of legal challenges, as you can imagine. Abortion bans, some targeting the specific medication, are in effect in more than a dozen states.”
This segment was sponsored by Xfinity.
Here is a transcript for the January 4 show:
CNN This Morning
1/4/2023
6:24 AM ET
POPPY HARLOW: Welcome back this morning, the FDA is announcing a big move on access to abortion. We're talking about the pill or the medication for it. This comes, of course, after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. What's changed is that pharmacies, like your average pharmacy is now able to sell these abortion pills to people who have a prescription.
CNN medical correspondent Dr. Tara Narula joins us now. So you need a prescription.
NARULA: Correct.
HARLOW: But this is different than the morning after pill, for example.
NARULA: Yeah, so this is basically meant to medically induce an abortion and as you said this is probably going to expand access to many, many women, making it much easier, if they want, to be able to get these pills by going to, potentially, their local pharmacy. And so historically in order to get access a woman had to go in-person to a doctor's office, hospital, or clinic and get that drug right there.
Over the course of the pandemic, that was changed a little bit. So a woman could have a telehealth visit and have it sent to them by a mail order from a certified pharmacy, but now the FDA is saying you don't have to go in person, number one, and number two, you could potentially go to any of these brick and mortar pharmacies who fill out, essentially, paperwork to make themselves certified.
So it remains to be seen how many of the big chains like CVS or Walgreens are going to do this, will we see this in the beginning in just smaller pharmacies? But what we may see as well is more doctors being willing to prescribe these drugs because they don't need to stock the drugs in their office, so it’s definitely going to become easier for a lot of women.
DON LEMON: It's interesting because I-- over the holidays I saw an ad, could it be for this, because they just did this –
NARULA: Really?
LEMON: I saw an ad, the woman walking out of a pharmacy saying, you know, my, you know, I was able to make my own choice and blah, blah, blah, I don't know if it was for the morning after pill –
HARLOW: Or advocating for this?
LEMON: But I thought it was for this particular thing, so I don't know?
NARULA: So this, yeah, this is basically we're talking about a two-drug regimen when we know medication induced abortions are actually responsible for half of the abortions in the country. So, they’ve kind of overtaken surgical abortions.
LEMON: Yeah.
NARULA: And basically we’re talking about the first drug, mifepristone, in a two-drug regimen, it’s that first drug that was difficult to get and you can take that up to 10 weeks and this drug’s been around since 2000 so this is really a big change for a lot of women.
