Hawley Introduces Bill To Roll Back FDA Approval of Abortion Drug

Senator Josh Hawley is introducing legislation to roll back the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug mifepristone, which can be used in concert with other drugs in order to end pregnancies in the first trimester. Mr. Hawley’s decision to launch such an effort comes as leading anti-abortion rights groups have been expressing frustration at the Trump administration’s lack of action. During the 2024 race, Mr. Trump campaigned as a more moderate Republican in conversations about abortion, including by promising to force insurers to cover in vitro fertilization treatments and by leaving abortion restriction laws up to individual states. Those groups opposed to his platform made their feelings known, especially after first lady Melania Trump publicly defended a woman’s right to choose and after he nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a Democrat who has supported abortion rights for decades — to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services. Under Mr. Kennedy’s leadership, the FDA has not rolled back regulatory approval for mifepristone, which is used for a majority of abortions in the United States. Despite the FDA reviewing possible options, Mr. Hawley is going full steam ahead with his own effort to get the drug off the market. “The science is clear: the chemical abortion drug is inherently dangerous to women and prone to abuse. Yet major companies like Danco Laboratories are making billions off it,” Mr. Hawley said Wednesday. “That’s why I am introducing new legislation to ban the use of mifepristone for abortion and empower women to sue its manufacturers. Congress must act now to protect the health and safety of women.”He cites a study from the Ethics and Public Policy Center — a conservative think-tank — which found that more than ten percent of women who use mifepristone can suffer from serious side effects, like sepsis and other infections. The FDA, however, says that the rate of women who have adverse reactions to the drug is less than half of one percent. In October, the FDA approved a new generic form of mifepristone to be used by individuals, much to the chagrin of anti-abortion rights groups. A spokesman for HHS told NBC News at the time that the new approval was not indicative of the department’s ongoing review of mifepristone, saying that HHS is “conducting a study of the reported adverse effects of mifepristone to ensure the FDA’s risk mitigation program for the drug is sufficient to protect women from unstated risks.”Mr. Hawley says that it must be Congress to step in and revoke the FDA approval and stop doctors from prescribing mifepristone in order to be used to terminate pregnancies. First elected to the Senate in 2018, Mr. Hawley has been a strident opponent of abortion rights along with his wife, Erin Hawley, who argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2024 that mifepristone is a danger to women’s health. The legislation is unlikely to go anywhere in Congress, given the narrow GOP majority in the House and the 60-vote threshold needed to end debate in the Senate. Mr. Hawley’s decision to launch this effort now, however, puts him at the center of a lengthy battle between the Trump administration and influential anti-abortion groups ahead of the 2028 Republican presidential primaries.

Hawley Introduces Bill To Roll Back FDA Approval of Abortion Drug

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