EXCLUSIVE – Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) is introducing legislation to tighten access to Mifepristone by reinstating in-person requirements to obtain the abortion pill, a move that would effectively ban sending the drug by mail.

Miller’s “Restoring Safeguards for Dangerous Abortion Drugs Act,” obtained by the Washington Examiner, would direct the Food and Drug Administration to require a prescription from physicians, in-person dispensing of the pill, as well as in-person safety checkups. 

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The bill, a companion to Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) legislation, would effectively cut off teleprescribing and mailing of abortion drugs, which are used in nearly two-thirds of all United States abortions. Certain states already have restrictions on the medication.

“Chemical abortion drugs are dangerous, and women are suffering life-threatening complications because critical safeguards were recklessly removed,” Miller said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “It is time to restore commonsense protections, guarantee adequate medical care for women, and hold Big Abortion accountable for putting profit over safety.”

The attempt to eliminate the mailing of Mifepristone comes as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a letter last week to over 20 Republican attorneys general that the FDA would conduct its own review of the abortion pill.

“HHS is committed to studying the adverse consequences reported in relation to mifepristone to ensure the [risk evaluation and mitigation strategies] are sufficient to protect women from unstated risks,” the letter reads. “Therefore, through the FDA, HHS will conduct a study of the safety of the current REMS, in order to determine whether modifications are necessary.”

In April, the conservative think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center published a study that found nearly 11% of women experience an adverse effect to the drug within 45 days of taking it. Previous studies found the rate of adverse reactions to be less than 0.5%, a far lower statistic. Abortion-rights advocates have decried the study as “junk science.”

“Mifepristone has been safely and legally used in the U.S. by over 5 million women since the FDA approved its use more than 20 years ago,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said in a post on X in response to Kennedy and Makary’s letter. “The decision to get an abortion should be made by a woman & her doctor, not by the government & especially not RFK Jr.”

In 2016 and 2021, the FDA eased restrictions on Mifepristone, including expanding the period in which the pill could be administered and eliminating the in-person dispensing requirement. 

The Supreme Court preserved access to abortion pills in June 2024 after ruling abortion opponents lacked legal standing to sue over the FDA’s decisions on Mifepristone access. However, the court didn’t address the merits of the FDA’s actions.

The Trump administration in May defended federal regulations over the abortion drug, arguing to a federal judge that three GOP-controlled states that sued over the FDA’s regulations of Mifepristone did not have standing to do so. However, the Trump administration’s defense of the FDA did not address the issue of the pills themselves.

The GOP bill would give women the right to sue individuals, telehealth providers, and pharmacies that mail the abortion drug for damages. Under the legislation, if passed, foreign companies would be banned from bringing the drug into the U.S. as well.

The bill is cosponsored by Reps. Barry Moore (R-AL), Sheri Biggs (R-SC), Randy Weber (R-TX), and Pat Harrigan (R-NC). 

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Nineteen states have banned abortion or placed limitations on when the procedure can be done since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. 

But several states have moved to enact telemedicine shield laws to protect doctors and individuals who send abortion pills by mail to states where abortion is illegal, setting up a battle between blue and red states over the abortion drug.

In Texas, state lawmakers passed legislation that allows citizens to sue anyone who provides abortion medication to or from Texas, including by mail.