Boise pharmacist refused to fill prescription for miscarriage meds, citing abortion laws

A Boise woman’s experience has garnered attention on social media after her husband posted about a local pharmacist’s refusal to fill a prescription to aid her miscarriage. The couple said they hope to spread awareness about the far-reaching impacts of Idaho’s anti-abortion laws.

Kristin Colson told the Idaho Statesman she and her husband, Loren, were at a seven-week ultrasound appointment with their doctor on Jan. 25 when they learned they had an anembryonic pregnancy. A fertilized egg had implanted in Colson’s uterus but did not grow into an embryo.

Colson said her doctor then presented her with options to manage her miscarriage: surgery, medication or waiting for her body to pass the tissue on its own.

The Colsons were already familiar with the options. Kristin Colson said she has experienced multiple pregnancy losses as the couple pursues fertility treatments, and Loren is a physician. Kristin opted to manage the miscarriage with medication, which can make the experience faster and more predictable, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

“A lot of people successfully miscarry on their own, but that can take a couple months,” Loren said in an interview.

Kristin told the Statesman she typically receives a text from her pharmacy when a prescription is ready. When no text came the next day, she called to check in.

“The pharmacist shared that he didn’t feel comfortable filling the prescription with his license at this dosage because of Idaho’s laws,” she said.

Kristin said she explained to the pharmacist that her prescription for misoprostol was perfectly legal. He recommended she call her doctor and have the prescription sent to a different pharmacy. The Colsons declined to identify the pharmacy publicly.

“Going through a miscarriage is a challenging experience to begin with,” Kristin said. “At the time I was confused. This, to me, seemed like a very clear reason why this medication was being prescribed.”

Consequences of delayed miscarriage medication

Kristin called her doctor’s office immediately after her prescription was denied. Her medical provider was able to send the scrip to a different pharmacist, who provided the medication that day.

Then she reached out to her husband, who is a member of the Idaho Coalition for Safe Healthcare, a group that works with theLegislature and the public to improve reproductive care.

Loren told the Statesman he frequently hears stories from other Idahoans about reproductive health care and encourages them to share. So when his family was impacted, he thought it made sense to make their story public. He didn’t expect the response he received.

Loren Colson posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, hours after Kristin was denied her prescription.

“Pharmacist in Boise refused to fill my wife’s prescription for misoprostol to manage her miscarriage today because of ‘Idaho laws,’ so that’s cool,” he wrote.

The post was shared nearly 2,000 times, had more than 300 responses and was liked nearly 6,000 times. Other users offered an outpouring of anger and sadness on the Colsons’ behalf.

In a thread, Loren explained the same miscarriage management options the Colsons’ doctor had given them. He said with medication, a seven-week process can be shortened to about two days.

Loren said Kristin also could’ve faced health risks if she had been unable to fill her misoprostol prescription before the weekend.

“Maybe it would’ve been fine and she would’ve miscarried on her own,” he told the Statesman. “Maybe she would have miscarried and had complications and not been able to complete the miscarriage. There are a lot of potential outcomes to not getting that medication in a timely manner.”

Studies have shown that women who manage miscarriages with medication are at a lower risk of an incomplete miscarriage than women who use “expectant management,” or allowing the body to pass tissue naturally.

‘We know our rights’

For the Colsons, the experience was a reminder of the broad impact of the last few years’ laws on abortion. Loren said he hopes speaking up will educate Idaho pharmacists on the legal use of misoprostol and a similar drug, mifepristone, for managing miscarriages.

“(Those medications) can be used as part of regimen for medical abortion, which is where I think the confusion came in,” Loren said. “That’s the issue with the laws. They’re vague, and people are getting different information from different people and drawing the line themselves.”

Idaho has laws banning abortion by any method and at any point in a pregnancy. The only exceptions are when the pregnant patient’s life is at risk from the pregnancy or if it’s a result of rape or incest — and only when the crime has been reported to police. In addition, a Texas lawsuit that seeks to overturn expanded access to mifepristone has made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where arguments will be heard in March. Last month, a judge allowed Idaho, Kansas and Missouri to join the lawsuit.

Given that complex legal landscape, Loren said it was “pretty coincidental” that a local pharmacist would refuse to provide a prescription for a family so knowledgeable on reproductive health care laws.

“We know our rights very well and know how to navigate (this issue), but most people wouldn’t,” Loren told the Statesman. “Most people would’ve been told ‘no’ and that’s it. That’s the scary part.”

He suggested medical providers keep mifepristone and misoprostol on-hand in their own offices to save patients the possibility of being denied their prescriptions.

“I was fortunate,” Kristin said. “I live in Boise, and there’s a lot of options here. I was able to call up my doctor and we got this resolved very quickly. For women in other parts of the state, they may not have access to options for this kind of care.”