RFK Jr. says abortion pill under review, medical requirements may be reinstated

The Trump administration is reviewing new data on the risks of the abortion pill, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday.

“We know that during the Biden administration, they actually twisted the data to bury one of the safety signals, a very high safety signal…,” Kennedy told Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, during a Senate Finance Committee hearing. “We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore.”

Lankford had asked about changes the Biden administration implemented on the allocation of mifepristone – the chemical abortion pill.

“It’s now open to anyone without a prescription on it. You don’t have to go through a doctor on it,” Lankford said in the hearing.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, also asked Kennedy for updates on the “status and scope of the review” regarding abortion pill safety pledged by Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary. Kennedy said the reviews are “progressing and ongoing.” 

Daines outlined growing evidence the pills are far less safe than advertised and can be accessed too easily. 

“Since mifepristone was approved in 2000, 25 years ago, the FDA has steadily stripped away safeguards related to this drug no longer requiring a doctor’s prescription, no follow-up visits, no adverse event reporting, and now allowing it to be sent through the mail,” The Montana senator said. 

Daines referenced new data showing the abortion pill is 22 times more dangerous than the FDA label advertises. The data, released by Ethics and Public Policy Center, analyzed 865,000 “real-world insurance claims” and found nearly 11% of women report serious adverse events within 45 days of taking mifepristone. 

“For years we’ve heard the misleading and frankly very harmful lie that’s being sold to women that this drug is, and I quote, ‘safe as Tylenol,’” Daines said. “These lies sadly have real-world consequences. Just last year, two women died as a result of taking chemical abortion pills because they were able to access them without appropriate medical oversight.” 

Daines, along with Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Indiana and Jim Banks, R-Tennessee, sent Attorney General Pam Bondi a letter in July requesting she investigate “whether drug manufacturers have misrepresented mifepristone’s safety and efficacy.” 

The senators wrote the abortion pill is not a matter of opinion but a “women’s health and safety issue.” 

Outside the Senate, 22 attorneys general signed a letter to Kennedy and Makary asking them to reinstate abortion pill safety protocols previously removed under the Obama and Biden administrations. 

Abuse and coercion 

While the abortion pill itself poses significant health risks to women, the lack of regulation has increased cases of coercion and trickery, where women take the easy-to-get pills unknowingly.  

One in four women describe their abortion as “unwanted or coerced,” according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.

In August, Liana Davis, 37, sued Christopher Cooprider, a 34-year-old Marine pilot in training, who Davis alleges laced her hot chocolate with mifepristone and misoprostol, causing the death of their eight-weeks-in-utero daughter, Joy. 

This year, at least four women have claimed similar coerced or laced chemical abortions, and the stories continue to emerge. 

In a recent investigation, the Daily Caller News Foundation accessed abortion pills “within five minutes” through five different online providers simply by “filling out a medical form.” One of the providers, Aid Access, the same site Cooprider allegedly used, advertised taking the pill up to 14 weeks of pregnancy – four weeks past the FDA’s guidelines. 

With the FDA guidelines already under investigation, these extended directions increase the danger posed to women, as the attorneys’ general letter addressed. 

“Alternatively, in light of the serious risks to women who are presently being prescribed this drug without crucial safeguards, and in the event the FDA is unable to reinstate the 2011 safety protocols for mifepristone, the FDA should consider withdrawing mifepristone from the market until it completes its review and can decide on a course of action based on objective safety and efficacy criteria,” the attorneys general wrote. 

Kennedy’s and Makary’s review could result in crucial regulations on the abortion pill. 

“The science is clear: the abortion pill is not safe for women,” Daines said.