Senate Committee hearing highlights women's injuries from abortion pill

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) held a hearing on Wednesday discussing the importance of protecting women from the serious risks of mifepristone, the first drug in the two-drug abortion pill regimen. The regimen was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000 under President Clinton.

Key Takeaways:

• The Senate HELP Committee met on Wednesday to discuss the regulation of mifepristone, the first drug of the abortion pill regimen.

• Sen. Bill Cassidy, committee chair, opened the hearing with statistics on injuries caused by mifepristone as well as stories of the traumatic experiences of women who took the drug.

• Pro-abortion witness, Dr. Nisha Verma, claimed that injuries are the result of pro-life laws, not the drug.

• The hearing ended similarly to how it began. Pro-lifers continue to push for stricter regulations on telehealth and online abortion pill access. Pro-abortion committee members and witnesses continue to insist mifepristone is safe despite recent studies concluding otherwise.

The Details:

The Senate HELP Committee met on Wednesday to debate the federal regulation of mifepristone, which has been a source of contention since the removal of safety restrictions on the drug under the Biden administration. The deep divide between pro-life and pro-abortion politicians and witnesses remained strong throughout the hearing. Pro-lifers shared stories of trauma and significant injuries related to the abortion pill, as well as more recent study results showing the risks associated with the drug are higher than previously stated.

Meanwhile, pro-abortion witnesses continued to claim the abortion pill is safe and blamed pro-life laws for the injuries that women suffer after taking mifepristone.

Senator Bill Cassidy: "Women with real stories"

Committee chair, Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), opened the hearing by discussing the trauma and injuries women have experienced when taking the abortion pill, which they have been led to believe is 'safe.' Cassidy stated:

“Scientifically and morally, there is no difference in the value of a child whether she is in her mother’s arms, or she is in her mother’s womb. We’ll hear testimony today about the dangers of mifepristone, the chemical abortion drug. Now, these drugs are not safe, run-of-the mill drugs. They are certainly not safe for the unborn child, but there can also be potential complications for the mother.”

Cassidy then noted several facts about these complications, stating:

"One study showed that nine in 10 women who take a chemical abortion drug describe their pain as moderate to severe, and half of women say the experience was worse than expected. Another study found that one in ten women taking mifepristone experience serious adverse events, including hemorrhaging, bleeding, sepsis, overwhelming infection or... infection.... These are not about statistics. It's about women with real stories."

Cassidy shared the story of a woman named Salome, who took the abortion pill and then felt that her insides were being "torn and sliced apart."

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"Felt like somebody stabbing me in my stomach" "Blood all over my legs" "I couldn't believe what I was looking at" @SenBillCassidy reveals the truth about the dangers of the abortion pill. Both babies AND their mothers are AT RISK.

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5:43 PM · Jan 14, 2026

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"I saw the most heartbreaking thing that I've seen in my entire life," Dr. Cassidy stated, recounting Salome's remarks. "I saw my child, and it was at that moment that it sunk in properly that I really had been pregnant. I'd been carrying the life that I created inside of me until that very moment. I couldn't believe what I was looking at; it was the most beautiful thing that I've ever created, and I destroyed it."

Dr. Cassidy also recalled the story of Shanyce, who developed sepsis after taking the abortion pill because the abortion drugs left some of her baby's remains inside her. She required a two-month hospital stay and a partial hysterectomy. She had to relearn to walk and perform everyday activities.

Live Action interviewed Shanyce about her horrific experience:

WARNING: What They Don't Tell You About The Abortion Pill

Cassidy also urged HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Commissioner Marty Makary to complete the pending safety review of mifepristone, a review that was promised during their confirmation hearings. Cassidy argued that the minimum that must be done is to restore the in-person dispensing safeguards on mifepristone that the Biden administration removed.

Abortionist Dr. Nisha Verma: Abortion pill injuries are a "result of abortion bans"

Dr. Nisha Verma, abortionist and senior advisor to Physicians for Reproductive Health, acted as a pro-abortion witness at the hearing, claiming that any injuries related to mifepristone are the result of pro-life laws.

"I do want to highlight again some misinformation that we've been hearing around the source of the some of the harm that we're seeing right now," she said during the hearing. "A lot of the cases that we're hearing about are a direct result of abortion bans and restrictions. People are desperate because they cannot get the care that they need in their communities with their trusted clinicians and people in their communities in the way that they need. And that is why we are seeing these cases come up. It is a direct result of abortion bans and restrictions."

This is inaccurate.

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Dr. Nisha Verma claims that negative abortion pill experiences are actually the result of pro-life laws. This is false.

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5:00 PM · Jan 15, 2026

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Abortion pill complications have been occurring since the drug was first approved just over 25 years ago.

Making the abortion pill available by telemedicine — long part of the pro-abortion plan — has allowed abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood and others to switch to a telehealth abortion pill model, cutting down on overhead costs, selling more abortions, and offloading women's complications to emergency rooms and urgent care facilities. Instead of helping a woman experiencing complications from the abortion pill, abortionists simply direct her to the ER and tell her to lie to the doctors and pretend she is miscarrying. This skews the safety data surrounding the abortion pill.

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Once again, the pro-abortion industry ignores science and promotes dangerous abortion pills at the expense of women’s health. The FDA’s own data shows that roughly 1 in 25 women who take mifepristone will end up in the emergency room. We also know that there is a 4x higher risk

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5:42 PM · Jan 14, 2026

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In addition, when Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) asked Dr. Verma if men can get pregnant, she refused to respond. After saying that science and evidence should be the determining factors in abortion related laws, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) also asked her if men can get pregnant.

“I hesitated there because I wasn’t sure where the conversation was going or what the goal was. I mean, I do take care of patients with different identities. I take care of many women,” she told Hawley.

Hawley replied, "The goal is to establish a biological reality. You just said a moment ago that science and evidence should control, not politics. So let’s just test that proposition.”

Dr. Verma responded, “I do treat people that don’t identify as women,” Verma said after a back-and-forth. “I think yes-no questions like this are a political tool.”

Dr. Verma is not known for her accuracy or impartiality, having once stated that induction of labor followed by a hysterectomy is an "abortion." She has also claimed that she doesn't believe women actually change their minds after taking the abortion pill, saying that advertising 'abortion pill reversal' adds to the "stigma" of abortion. “It’s projecting this false narrative that people aren’t sure, that people aren’t getting counseling, that they’re getting tricked into making these decisions and then changing their minds,” Verma said. “And that then contributes to other attempts to restrict abortion.”

And yet, her claim of a "false narrative" is the current state of affairs when it comes to the abortion pill:

• Women are lied to and told that the abortion pill is "safer than Tylenol" — a debunked claim for which Planned Parenthood is currently being sued.

• Many women have stated that they have, in fact, experienced near-instant regret after taking mifepristone, the first drug in the abortion pill regimen, and have sought medical help in an effort to counteract the drug's effects.

• A growing number of predatory men have obtained the abortion pill by mail under false pretenses and tricked or coerced women into taking the drugs or administered the drugs to them without their knowledge.

Other testimony

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill testified on the dangers and coercive nature of mail-order abortion drugs, including stories from her state. In 2025, Murrill indicted New York abortionist Margaret Carpenter for mailing the abortion pill to a Louisiana mother who allegedly coerced her teen daughter to take the drugs. The teen suffered complications during the abortion.

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Louisiana AG Murrill rebuts the idea that pro-life laws are the cause of negative abortion pill experiences. "It is illegal, unethical, and immoral for anyone to send pills to someone with no medical supervision..." "People from outside our state are sending [pills] into our

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5:00 PM · Jan 15, 2026

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Dr. Monique Wubbenhorst provided medical expertise and insight into the dangers of the abortion pill and dispelled the false narrative that treatments for miscarriage, stillbirth, and ectopic pregnancy are abortions. In addition to the injuries and trauma that occur with the abortion pill, Dr. Wubbenhorst spoke about coerced abortion and how online abortion pill ordering makes it easier for individuals with bad intentions to coerce or force women into abortions.

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A mother coerced her daughter into taking the abortion pill. She did NOT want the abortion. Dr. Monique Wubbenhorst testified that situations like these are ENABLED by mail-order abortion pills. Had an in-person patient exam been required, this situation might have been

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4:25 PM · Jan 15, 2026

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"[T]here's substantial evidence in the medical literature that many abortions are coerced," she said. "In addition to that, there are... 19 cases where, as I mentioned in my testimony, boyfriends, abusers forced women to have an abortion."

To get the abortion pill online, one must simply order it. No proof of pregnancy is needed, and the woman doesn't have to provide information. This has led to numerous cases in which a woman has been tricked, pressured, coerced, and even forced to take the abortion pill.

Yet, Senator Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) responded to the comments on coerced abortion by claiming that since women have been coerced for centuries, it's fine that they can be coerced with the abortion pill now.

Sen. Hassan Says Hearing on Abortion Pill is "Gaslighting at the highest level."

"The truth of the matter is that women have been coerced before mifepristone and they have been coerced since mifepristone," she said. "The murder rate, the assault rate on pregnant women by their partners to end a pregnancy has been a longstanding part of human history. So to blame it on mifepristone misses the point."

This is a shocking statement. Of course, coercion has been around for centuries, but that doesn't make it acceptable, and it doesn't mean we should make it easier. That is the point. Homicide is a leading cause of death in pregnant women. This is true even when abortion is widely available and easily accessible. Many of these women have been murdered for refusing to abort their babies. Making abortion pills available online opened the door to forced abortion without the ability for a woman to speak to a doctor about her situation and prevent the abortion from being carried out.

The Bottom Line:

Seventy-one percent of Americans, including 67% of those who identify as pro-choice, support requiring a doctor's visit before obtaining the abortion pill. It seems the pro-abortion senators are not in line with their constituents on the matter.

The hearing ended the way it began, with a deep divide between those seeking to protect women and children and those seemingly wishing to protect mifepristone access.