Is medical abortion under threat in France?

Maybe you don’t know: The United States is the only producer of abortion pills in the world. As mifepristone, the other component used for chemical abortions in the United States, is being phased out, stockpiles of misoprostol are more crucial than ever. However, on Friday, pharmaceutical watchdog @OTMeds warned of drug shortages in some French regions. Could access to abortion in France be compromised?

A fragile sector

A little later, the situation in Lille was restored. But it wouldn’t be the first time the pill has been rare. At issue are increasingly longer delivery times, which would put stocks under pressure. So much so that Planned Parenthood challenged the Minister of Health on Twitter, fearing that access to abortion would be directly affected by a potential shortage:

On March 9, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicinesnt already underlined this situation, indicating that it would be recurring from the beginning of January. As reported by our colleagues from The Espressothe sole manufacturer of the molecule, Nordic Pharma, acknowledges for its part ” difficulties at the level of manufacturing sites for finished products “. Although the return to normality is expected for the end of April 2023, the sector remains particularly fragile.

In 2020, the High Council for Equality was already sounding the alarm: “ The production of drugs used for medical abortion is in the hands of a single manufacturer, the Nordic Pharma group, with risks of production and supply disruptions and price pressures. “.

Furthermore, since the United States is the only producer, it could not be excluded that misoprostol is also at the center of a legal battle under pressure from anti-abortion activists, such as mifepristone. This would lead to some slowdowns that could jeopardize this fundamental right for the rest of the world, including France.