Mifepristone restrictions and primary care: Breaking the cycle of stigma through a learning collaborative model in the United States

Despite its safety record, mifepristone is subject to a highly restrictive set of regulatory measures through the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) by the US Food and Drug Administration. We argue that these restrictions both reflect and perpetuate a cycle of abortion stigma, creating particular barriers to mifepristone use in primary care settings where communities that historically experience barriers to care can most easily access reproductive health services. Through qualitative interviews with Illinois primary care clinicians, we discovered how the REMS heightens institutional anxiety over implementation of mifepristone use. To address this, we created ExPAND Mifepristone, a learning collaborative targeting institutional anxiety and logistical barriers to mifepristone use. The learning collaborative model holds high potential to mitigate institutional barriers to mifepristone use by increasing providers' self-efficacy to identify, address, and overcome institutional fears. Until the REMS is fully repealed, learning collaboratives constitute a promising tool to combat the practical and psychological barriers to mifepristone use that these restrictions currently pose. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Despite its safety record, mifepristone is subject to a highly restrictive set of regulatory measures through the REMS, reflecting and perpetuating a cycle of abortion stigma. The ExPAND Mifepristone learning collaborative targets institutional anxiety and logistical barriers to increase providers' self-efficacy. Learning collaboratives show promise in addressing the practical and psychological barriers to mifepristone use until the REMS is fully repealed.