51 senators ask the FDA to stop allowing mail-order abortions

A group of 51 U.S. senators sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary, seeking an end to the Biden administration's decision to permanently allow the abortion pill to be sent by mail.

Key Takeaways:

Over the past 25 years, safety standards put in place for the abortion pill regimen have been increasingly loosened.
In 2023, the BIden administration allowed abortion pills to be permanently shipped by mail, without a doctor's supervision.
Kennedy and Makary recently announced they would be reviewing abortion pill protocols last month, and then the FDA approved a generic version of the drug mifepristone.
51 U.S. senators sent a letter to both Kennedy and Makary asking them to rescind the authorization for abortion pills to be sent through the mail.

The Details:

In the letter, the senators pointed out the current abortion-on-demand policy from the FDA has led to the deaths of countless preborn children, as well as numerous injured women. They wrote:

Contrary to the narrative peddled by the media that taking abortion pills is “safer than taking Tylenol,” evidence shows that the risk of serious medical complications after taking mifepristone is at least twenty-two times higher than reported on the drug label.

In fact, more than 1 in 10 women who take mifepristone will experience a serious adverse event.

Additionally, they noted that it has been infringing upon states' rights, as abortion pills are easily flowing out of pro-abortion states into pro-life states.

Never miss the latest news in the fight for life.

"Pro-life states have been forced to defend their citizens against radical abortion extremists," they said. "Louisiana and Texas are taking legal action against a New York doctor whose mail-order abortion business put at least two women in the hospital and a California doctor who allegedly sold abortion drugs to men."

Additionally, the senators noted that the Biden administration claimed there would be no increases in complications, but that has been proven false:

This year, two groups of researchers reviewed the outcomes of 865,727 medically-induced abortions from 2017 to 2023, all of which occurred after the FDA stopped collecting complication information other than death in 2016. Their research found “that chemical abortion poses greater risks to women in real-world clinical use than revealed in the clinical trials of mifepristone and that the rate of serious adverse events from the chemical abortion regimen continues to grow in recent years.”

Despite this, President Biden used the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to remove these critical safeguards and fundamentally undermine women’s reproductive health. But in November 2024, [73] million Americans voted to bring a stop to this radical abortion agenda.

Thumbnail for 1st Trimester Abortion | The Abortion Pill | What Is Abortion?

The Backstory:

The abortion pill (mifepristone 200mg) was approved by the FDA 25 years ago, with safety protocols (REMS) in place, requiring the drugs to be taken in-person in front of a physician, and with it approved only through seven weeks. The Obama administration later weakened the safety protocols, allowing the abortion pill to be taken through 10 weeks and removing the in-person requirement, as well as the reporting requirement for non-fatal adverse events, so the only complications associated with the abortion pill which would be reported to the manufacturer were deaths.

The Biden-Harris administration continued with this trend, allowing abortion pills to be sent through the mail, which has led to several reported instances of forced or coerced abortion. Additionally, the Biden administration also permanently eliminated the requirement for the drug to be dispensed in person, and allowed retail pharmacies to dispense abortion pills.

Why It Matters:

The abortion industry has claimed the abortion pill regimen is “safer than Tylenol,” despite its numerous known complications, such as severe cramping, contractions, and heavy bleeding, as well as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and headaches.

One study found that women are not properly prepared by abortionists for the pain after taking the abortion pill; other studies found that abortion pills are four times more dangerous than a first-trimester surgical abortion. In another study, 6% of women had complications which required a visit to the emergency room or urgent care. Yet another study, this time in Ireland, found that 12% of women underwent chemical abortions between January 2019 and December 2022 experienced complications severe enough to require a visit to the emergency room, while 16% suffered incomplete abortions.

Another recent analysis published by the Ethics and Public Policy Center examined insurance data and found the complication rate is 22 times higher than what the FDA currently claims, with nearly 11% of women who take mifepristone suffering a severe complication.

Yet the real number of complications could be even higher, as the abortion industry has frequently told women to lie to emergency room providers and say they are experiencing natural miscarriages, instead of post-abortion complications... leaving doctors, abortion pill manufacturers, the FDA, and the public in the dark.

The “no-test” abortion pill protocol championed by the abortion industry and the Biden administration is even more dangerous for women. Without an ultrasound or blood test, neither the preborn child’s gestational age nor the absence of an extra-uterine pregnancy can be verified. These are both contraindications for the abortion pill, and can be life-threatening.

It is for these exact reasons the FDA and HHS announced they would be undertaking a review of the safety of the abortion pill... only to approve a generic version soon after.

The Bottom Line:

It is long past time for the HHS and FDA to take action — both to protect preborn children and their mothers.

Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.

Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.

Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.

Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!