Every Republican senator except Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski signed a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday urging them to take immediate action to halt and reverse the Biden administration’s mail-order permissions for abortion pills.
The written demand for action comes shortly after the FDA pledged a safety review of the drug it approved 25 years ago, bypassing safety concerns. The senators’ letter also follows a lawsuit from Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and a Pelican State woman who survived abortion pill poisoning demanding the FDA end the Biden administration’s mail-order permissions for mifepristone.
As the Republican senators noted in their letter, the Democrat administration’s removals of mifepristone safeguards, such as an in-person visit, “have enabled abortion pills to be obtained by abusers, traffickers, and even minors.” Not only have countless unborn lives been lost, but women have also suffered injuries and even died after taking mifepristone without medical supervision.
The GOPers also noted that the widespread distribution of abortion pills is “systematically undermining states’ rights and violating pro-life state laws.”
“Every month, thousands of abortion drugs are shipped into states that have otherwise limited access to abortion after Dobbs, degrading pro-life laws at the state level across the country,” the letter continues.
Both Kennedy and Makary have expressed openness to evaluating permissions for the abortion drug, positions that the senators praised.
Kennedy confirmed to the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4 that the Biden administration “actually twisted the data to bury one of the [mifepristone] safety signals.” In a joint letter to 22 Republican attorneys general on Sept. 19, Kennedy and Makary also reiterated that the federal regulators planned their “own review of the evidence, including real-world outcomes and evidence, relating to the safety and efficacy” due to discrepancies between the mifepristone label and recent drug studies.
In their letter, however, the Republican senators snubbed the FDA’s recent approval of a generic version of mifepristone, especially one manufactured by a company committed to “normalizing” abortion for all.
“While we recognize the FDA’s statutory responsibility in evaluating drug applications, the timing of this approval appears inconsistent with the comprehensive safety reassessment your agencies have prioritized,” the letter notes. “Out of respect for this important review, and with full confidence in your dedication to protecting women’s health, states’ rights, and unborn life, we urge you to take decisive action to reevaluate whether this generic version of mifepristone is suitable to enter the market.”
The senators emphasized that “your agencies have all the information they need to bring an end to previous Democrat administrations’ abortion drug regulations while a comprehensive review is conducted.”
The Republicans recommend that the regulators begin by halting the approval of “any new generic versions of mifepristone” until after the promised safety review concludes, and that the regulators include any previously approved versions of the drug in that review. They also suggested the FDA reinstate the abortion pill safeguards demolished by prior Democrat administrations, including the in-person visit and a ban on pharmacies’ dispensing the pills.
“The Biden-Harris administration enabled the deception of American women and the violation of states’ constitutional rights by relying on faulty data to claim that there would be no increase in complications if abortion drugs were approved for mail-order. But the current data reveals the truth,” the senators wrote.
Finally, the Republicans urged the FDA to label mifepristone an “imminent hazard” that is prohibited from distribution.
“We are heartened that 51 U.S. Senators recognize the extreme danger mifepristone poses to women across America and that immediate action is required. There is no time to wait — this is a health emergency,” Founder and CEO of Restoration of America Foundation Doug Truax said in a statement to The Federalist.
RAF is responsible for the research showing that more than one in 10 women who take mifepristone suffer a serious adverse event. Their review of private medical insurance data suggested the rate of life-threatening complications such as hemorrhage and infection after pill-induced abortion is at least 22 times higher than what the FDA and mifepristone manufacturer Danco Laboratories suggest.
According to SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser, women “deserve much better than mail-in chemical abortion and bleeding out in a bathroom alone.”
“Abortion drugs should be off the market completely in order to protect women and babies, but let’s start by restoring safeguards eviscerated by the Biden regime,” she said in a statement to The Federalist.