(Oregon Right to Life) — Nearly two dozen Republican attorneys general signed onto a joint letter urging the Trump administration to either restore regulations on the dangerous abortion pill or pull it from the market pending further action.
The document, signed by 22 attorneys general, underscores the simultaneous lack of regulations on the increasingly common abortion pill mifepristone as well as the serious adverse events associated with the drug.
Fox News Digital obtained the letter, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, which cites blockbuster research published this year by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPA) finding a far higher adverse reaction rate associated with mifepristone than previously reported.
“[I]n 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.
“Recent comprehensive studies of the real-world effects of the chemical abortion drug mifepristone report that serious adverse events occur 22 times more often than stated on the drug’s label, while the drug is less than half as effective as claimed,” the letter stated.
The study, based on an analysis of public and private insurance claims submitted by 330 million U.S. patients from 2017 to 2023, calculated the severe complication rate associated with the drug to be twenty-two times the one currently listed on the drug’s official FDA label. According to the research, 10.93% of the 865,727 women prescribed mifepristone for abortions over the seven year period suffered a serious adverse event within 45 days of taking the drug. That percentage dwarfs the less than 0.5% rate of severe adverse event rate listed on the current FDA label for the two-drug mifepristone and misoprostol regimen.
“These facts directly contradict the drug’s primary marketing message of ‘safe’ and ‘effective,'” the attorneys general said.
READ: Report: Abortion Pills Result in Serious Complications in at Least One in Every Ten Cases
The attorneys general called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), headed by Marty Makary, to consider restoring earlier regulations on the drug.
“We’re simply asking the FDA to take a second look,” Governor Kobach later told the Family Research Council in remarks about the letter. “We have a lot of additional information.”
The loosening of restrictions on mifepristone – which works by blocking the production of the pregnant woman’s growth hormone progesterone, thereby starving the unborn baby to death – began with a significant policy change in 2016, when the FDA expanded the timeframe in which mifepristone could be prescribed during pregnancy. It also removed the requirement to report complications that do not result in death.
Then in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA permitted mifepristone to be prescribed online and distributed via mail. Local pharmacies were also authorized to dispense the drugs, and in January 2023, that permission was extended to retail pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS.
“The FDA’s removal of these crucial safety protocols in 2016 (and in 2023) that only five years before the FDA considered necessary begs the question of whether the removal was motivated by considerations other than the safety of patients,” the attorneys general said.
Amid the rollback of the regulations, abortion pills have become the most popular method of abortion in the U.S., reportedly accounting for an estimated 63% of legal abortions in 2023. The popularity and increased accessibility of the drugs, combined with their risk of causing serious adverse reactions, has prompted widespread concern for women’s health and safety.
“Currently, a woman can obtain a mifepristone abortion by participating in only one telehealth visit with any approved healthcare provider (not necessarily a physician), ordering the drugs through a mail-order pharmacy, and self-administering them,” the attorneys general observed in their letter, adding that “the prescriber is only required to report an adverse event if he or she becomes aware that the patient has died.”
The attorneys general ended their letter by pressing the government to begin the investigation.
RELATED: FDA Will Conduct Investigation into Abortion Pill Following Blockbuster Study on Risks
“The current FDA’s dedication to the health and wellbeing of all Americans is encouraging, as is the much-needed review of mifepristone that Secretary Kennedy has promised,” the letter concluded.
Kennedy has directed the FDA to review the matter, and Makary has pledged to do so. However, no action has yet taken place.
