San Diego County supervisors, only 3 present, fail to pass reproductive freedom policy

With only three members present, the county Board of Supervisors Tuesday failed to pass a measure that would allow the county to secure its emergency stockpile of medication-based abortion treatments Misoprostol and Mifepristone.

Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer, who made the proposal, and Monica Montgomery Steppe voted yes, while their colleague Jim Desmond was the no vote. Supervisor Joel Anderson was absent during the vote, while board Chairwoman Nora Vargas left the meeting earlier.

In a statement following the meeting, Lawson-Remer's office said she will reintroduce the proposal at a later date.

Lawson-Remer said it was important for county leaders not to be apathetic about the issue. Ahead of an anticipated U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Lawson-Remer last month called for the county to secure its emergency stockpile of the abortion drug, in the form of a resolution.

FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, involves anti-abortion group AHM suing the Food and Drug Administration over its approval of Mifepristone, filed shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

Mifepristone is an oral medication taken with Misoprostol to terminate an early stage pregnancy by blocking the hormone progesterone. It can also be utilized to help aid in the process when a person is suffering from a pregnancy loss and helps to keep individuals from needing surgery or waiting for the pregnancy to pass on its own, which can take up to eight weeks.

"Reproductive freedom is under attack and it's our responsibility to help uphold a woman's right to abortion access," Lawson-Remer said. "Mifepristone helps those who suffer from natural pregnancy loss, in addition to stopping pregnancies in the early stages, and this reproductive health care medication needs to remain available. It is the reason I feel our county must work with the state to ensure people in San Diego County have access to it."

The medication was approved by the FDA in 2000. Initially, the FDA imposed conditions on how the drug could be prescribed and used, such as a requirement the drug be dispensed in person by a doctor, and only through the seventh week of pregnancy.

Women taking Mifepristone had to make three visits to a health care provider -- a first visit to take Mifepristone; a second visit two days later to take Misoprostol; and a third visit two weeks after the initial visit to confirm that the pregnancy had been terminated.

Since then, the requirements have been relaxed and medication-induced abortions have been easier to obtain, which is what Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine has pivoted to suing the agency over.

AHM "upholds and promotes the fundamental principles of Hippocratic medicine," according to a statement on the group's website. "These principles include protecting the vulnerable at the beginning and end of life."

There are 36 states that allow the drug to be prescribed while 14 have banned it. It is used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the nation.

A 2018 report titled "The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care in the United States" found "the risks of medication abortion are similar in magnitude to the risks of taking commonly prescribed and over-the-counter medications such as antibiotics and NSAIDs."

Lawson-Remer's proposed board letter urged the county's interim chief administrative officer to work with the state to secure an emergency stockpile of the two drugs used in medication-induced abortions and pregnancy loss care. She also put forward a resolution to ensure continued access to medication- based abortion treatment for San Diegans.

Before the vote Tuesday, Montgomery Steppe described the proposal as a liberty and freedom-of-choice issue. She added that it was important to preserve "the right for individuals to choose what's right for them and their bodies" in California and San Diego County.

"We must do what we can as a county to ensure barriers to health care are being removed and not allow more barriers to be established," Montgomery Steppe said.

Desmond said the county has nothing to do with the management of pills -- but the state of California has stockpiled 2 million of the abortion medication pills.

Desmond added that he thinks it's unlikely the abortion medications will ever be restricted in California.

Anderson said the proposal "was nothing more than political grandstanding and when it inevitably comes back before the board I will vote no."