CG heard from 4 co-authors of a study that suggests abortion medications could one day meet the criteria for FDA approval as over-the-counter products. Emma Hernández of We Testify even shares a personal story showing how OTC pills could improve access to reproductive care and autonomy amid storms.
U.N. Women released a statement in late May underscoring concerns that the effects of this outbreak may be disproportionately felt by women, who are often overrepresented in administering care for sick family and community members, increasing risks of infection.
![Global outbreaks are another climate-linked driver of violence against women and girls — but "we know how to keep [them] safe"](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1584931423298-c576fda54bd2?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDJ8fG91dGJyZWFrc3xlbnwwfHx8fDE3Nzk0NzY2NzN8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=30)
"We know how to keep women and girls safe in outbreak situations," Lindsay Stark, Co-Director of the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention at Washington University, told CG. "We simply need the political buy-in and financial resources to ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of past responses."
"Just because the RNA is present doesn't mean that that individual is actively infectious," David Safronetz of the Public Health Agency of Canada told Scientific American. Still, the CDC has encouraged people to "[avoid] kissing and sexual contact with someone who may have Andes virus."
"Pollution and climate shifts make the regular stressors more extreme and add new stressors," Jamie DeWitt, a study co-author and Director of the Pacific Northwest Center for Translational Environmental Health Research at Oregon State University, told CG.
The research involved trial participants in Pakistan, India, Kenya, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Guatemala.
Litigation on the matter is set to continue in the lower courts and could return to the Supreme Court down the line. But, for now, telemedicine, mail delivery, and pharmacy dispensing of the medication — which can be used to end a pregnancy — can continue where it is otherwise legal.
Reproductive rights advocates in the U.S. stress that another type of medication abortion should still be accessible via telehealth even in the event of a ruling against the virtual prescription and mail delivery of mifepristone.
"We're excited about this," Ravi Thadhani, study lead author and Chief Medical Officer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, told Scientific American.
"We expect a response by May 5, 2026," U.S. Senator Ron Wyden wrote in a letter to Lee Zeldin, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
"As climate change gets worse and worse, people are going to be experiencing multiple hazards over their lifetime, and … experiencing multiple of these hazards might affect people's choices," Meg "Bee" Brown, Research Lead at YLabs and lead author of the study, told CG.
"We have no choice but to transfer the costs right now to the customers," Goh Miah Kiat, Chief Executive Officer of Karex, told Reuters.
