RFK Jr. says Biden administration 'twisted' abortion pill data

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has accused the Biden administration of having "twisted the data" on the safety of the abortion pill, mifepristone. He told the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday that the Trump administration is committed to reviewing mifepristone's safety without political motivations.

Key Takeaways:

• HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, that "the Biden administration, they actually twisted the data" on the safety of the abortion pill.

• Kennedy testified that the FDA is conducting a review of the safety of mifepristone.

• A recent review of insurance claims found that nearly 11% (just over one in ten) of women who take the abortion pill suffer a serious complication — a rate 22 times higher than the serious adverse event rate reported on the FDA's label for the drug.

The Details:

In May, Kennedy ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr, Marty Makary to review mifepristone's safety. While he said on Thursday that he could not provide a timeline for that review, he told the Senate Finance Committee:

We're getting data in all the time — new data on that — we're reviewing. We know that during the Biden administration, they actually twisted the data to bury one of the safety signals — a very high safety signal, around 11%, so we're going to make sure that that doesn't happen anymore.

Kennedy's statement comes on the heels of a first-of-its-kind analysis of insurance claims showing that one in ten women who take the abortion pill suffer a "serious adverse event," such as an ER visit, surgery, or life-threatening infection. That study, “The Abortion Pill Harms Women,” published by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), found that serious adverse events from mifepristone occur at a rate about 22 times higher than the rate reported on the FDA label for the drug.

Researchers analyzed insurance claims from private health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, reviewed 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions that were carried out from 2017 to 2023. It found that nearly 11% of women (10.93%) experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or other serious or life-threatening adverse events within 45 days of taking mifepristone.

“Simply stated, mifepristone, as used in real-world conditions, is not ‘safe and effective,'” the authors stated.

Legal documents regarding an ongoing legal challenge of the expansion of mifepristone access state that when Biden became president, he "tasked HHS...to explore steps to 'ensure access to safe and legal abortion.' Officials were to 'use every lever at their disposal to ensure . . . access' for 'every woman . . . across the country'. Biden was allegedly “committed to doing everything in his power” to “protect access” to abortion.

Live Action president and founder Lila Rose said in a statement, "The abortion pill is a dangerous drug made to intentionally kill a developing child in the womb. It has been recklessly marketed as our health officials turn a blind eye, putting countless women and children at risk." 

She added:

Secretary Kennedy’s revelation that the Biden Administration manipulated data to downplay these risks is alarming and demands immediate accountability. 

Women deserve better than a system that prioritizes abortion industry profits over their safety and well-being.

In addition, as previously reported by Live Action research fellow Carole Novielli:

For decades abortion insiders have suggested that women experiencing an abortion pill complication should lie and claim to be miscarrying naturally when they present to the emergency room.

This scheme virtually guaranteed that accurate numbers on abortion pill adverse events or deaths will never be reported as such to authorities.

At that time, the FDA appears to have been complicit in the scheme by removing language on the drug's label that instructed women to bring the drug's medication guide to the ER, further diminishing the chance that ER doctors would ever know the woman was experiencing an abortion pill complication that should be reported to the manufacturer.

Why It Matters:

For two decades, the abortion pill has been marketed as an easy and "safe" way to kill preborn children. Planned Parenthood claims the abortion pill is “safer than many other medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra,” however, a study conducted by the pro-abortion organization Gynuity found that 6% of women who took the abortion pill required a visit to the ER or urgent care for complications. 

"That’s 107 times greater than the rate for acetaminophen/Tylenol (.056%) based on this analysis, and 33 times greater than the rate for penicillin (0.18%) based on this analysis," wrote Novielli. "When compared to the new research from EPPC showing a 10.93% 'serious adverse event' rate for the abortion pill, it becomes even more evident that Planned Parenthood’s claim is false."

The Bottom Line:

Hundreds of thousands of women take the abortion pill each year in the U.S. alone, all the while believing it will be safe and simple for them. However, countless women have come forward with stories of significant pain and bleeding, serious complications, and heartbreaking trauma after taking the drug. Women deserve the truth, and babies deserve to live.