Sen. Hawley: Manufacturers of chemical abortion pill know risks, harm women

Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, is launching an investigation into mifepristone manufacturers to understand how much they know about the pill’s dangers to women.

“They surely know that their drug is responsible for almost 11% of its users going to the hospital with a life-threatening condition. I want to see all of their internal documents,” Hawley told The Lion in an interview Thursday.

The senator revealed the investigation in a letter this week to the two companies, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, which are the two largest manufacturers of mifepristone used for chemical abortions. They produce this drug only, Hawley said, noting the “billions of dollars in profit” it brings the companies.

“Congress must determine what your company knew about the harms associated with mifepristone, when it knew it, what it told regulators, and what it may have failed to disclose to women and the public,” he said in his letter.

Hawley said he wants to know the full extent of what the companies continue to conceal, as well as who invests in them to allow them to “avoid accountability” in American courts.

He compared the companies’ cover-up of mifepristone’s harms to the same conduct of the tobacco companies in the twentieth century, which lied about nicotine addiction for decades, and buried research.

“I suspect the same thing is happening with these companies, except the mortality rate here and the adverse health event rate, the serious life-threatening condition rate, is even higher,” Hawley said.

Earlier this month, Hawley introduced The Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act, which would bar the use of mifepristone for chemical abortions and provide legal pathways for women harmed by the drug to seek damages. The bill has gained momentum in the Senate, with three Republican senators joining as co-sponsors: Sens. John Cornyn, Texas; Ted Budd, North Carolina; and Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee.

“Congress has the power – and the duty – to protect women from the dangers of chemical abortion and from the corporations who would exploit them. I hope that you will join me in this effort,” Hawley said in his letter to GOP Senate colleagues.

Companion legislation, sponsored by Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger, R-Tennessee, has also picked up multiple cosponsors in the House, according to Hawley’s press office.

Mifepristone, when used for chemical abortions, not only ends the life of the unborn child, but is also unsafe for mothers, Hawley said, which is why it should gain bipartisan support.

A drug that sends 11% of its users to the hospital with serious life-threatening conditions such as hemorrhaging, internal infection and sepsis, should not be on the market, Hawley said. Congress removed an anti-inflammatory drug when it posed a 0.001% risk of life-threatening conditions to users, he said.

“The women who are taking this drug are being lied to,” Hawley continued.

In addition to banning the drug for chemical abortions, Hawley’s bill provides avenues for women to seek compensation after suffering serious harms from the pill. He also recently opened a hotline for women who have been harmed by chemical abortion to inform his office with promised confidentiality.

“Hundreds of thousands of women have been sent to the hospital in danger of their lives because of this. They haven’t recovered a penny,” he said. “Those women ought to be able to sue these companies, and this drug ought to be off the market for abortion.”