abortion. This was introduced by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland in Iowa to allow a patient at one health facility to communicate via secure video with a health provider at another facility. This model has expanded to other Planned Parenthoods in multiple states as well other clinics providing abortion care. Direct-to-patient access The direct-to-patient model allows for medication abortion to be provided without an in-person clinic visit. Instead of an in-person clinic visit, the patient receives counseling and instruction from the abortion provider via videoconference. The patient can be at any location, including their home. The medications necessary for the abortion are mailed directly to the patient. This is a model, called TelAbortion or no-test medication abortion (formerly no-touch medication abortion), being piloted and studied by Gynuity Health Projects, with special approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This model has been shown to be safe, effective, efficient, and satisfactory. Complete abortion can be confirmed via telephone-based assessment. In the United States In the U.S., prescriptions for mifepristone may be filled by any pharmacy - online or brick-and-mortar - that has obtained a special certification. This regulation was provisionally implemented in Dec 2021, and was finalized by the FDA in January 2023. From 2011 until 2021, a patient was required to visit a healthcare provider in-person (at a clinic or office) and receive mifepristone directly from the provider. The requirement to visit a clinic to receive the drug was removed by the FDA in December 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the new rules, the prescription may be obtained via telehealth (phone calls or video conferencing with a healthcare provider), and then filled at any certified pharmacy. At the same time the FDA removed the requirement for an in-person visit, they added a requirement that dispensing pharmacies be "certified", which requires the pharmacy to have special permission to dispense the drugsa requirement the FDA imposes on only 40 drugs out of more than 19,000 it manages. The second drug used in medical abortion, misoprostol, is most commonly used for treating ulcers, and was never subject to the in-person dispensing constraints of mifepristone, and was always available from pharmacies with a prescription. The FDA does not authorize the use of mifepristone for medical abortion after 70 days, unlike most other countries, which authorize medical abortion into the second trimester and even the third trimester. Some states have passed laws