(Oregon Right to Life) — U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week affirmed that the promised HHS review of the abortion drug mifepristone is underway. Pro-life advocates, who have been calling for a complete evaluation of the dangerous pill, have praised Kennedy and the Trump administration for taking action.
Secretary Kennedy made the remarks in response to a question from U.S. Senator James Lankford (R–OK) during a Thursday Senate hearing.
Addressing “the issue of reviewing the safety issues of mifepristone,” Senator Lankford pointed out that the FDA removed numerous regulations on mifepristone during the Biden administration, making the drug much more widely accessible. The FDA permitted mifepristone to be prescribed online and distributed via mail in 2021, and local pharmacies were also authorized to dispense the drug. In 2023, that permission was extended to retail pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS.
During the Thursday Senate hearing, Senator Lankford reminded Kennedy of his earlier comments pledging a federal review of the safety of mifepristone and asked whether the HHS head could give an approximate timeline for such a review.
Kennedy told Lankford the review is currently “progressing apace,” per U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, though he was unable to provide “the exact timing” for its conclusion.
“We’re getting data in all the time, new data, that we’re reviewing,” Kennedy told Lankford. He also claimed that important safety data had previously been suppressed under the prior administration.
“We know that, during the Biden administration, they actually twisted the data to bury one of the safety signals,” he said. “It was a very high safety signal — around 11% — so we’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore.”
Kennedy’s remarks come after new research published by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) found a far higher adverse reaction rate associated with mifepristone than previously reported.
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 events listed on the current FDA label for the two-drug mifepristone and misoprostol regimen.
EPPC researchers urged federal officials to take the data seriously and restore regulations.
READ: Abortion Pills Result in Serious Complications in at Least One in Every Ten Cases
Pro-life leaders, who have been steadily urging Trump administration officials to investigate the risks posed by the abortion pill, released statements thanking Kennedy for his leadership and confirmation that the FDA review of mifepristone is taking place.
“We applaud the Trump administration, Secretary Kennedy, and Dr. Marty Makary for taking these safety concerns seriously and for their commitment to transparency and accountability,” National Right to Life president Carol Tobias said in a Thursday statement.
“Women deserve honesty, not buried data and manipulated reports,” she said. “The acknowledgment of suppressed safety data underscores the urgent need to restore, at a minimum, commonsense protections surrounding the use of mifepristone. We are grateful for the renewed focus on women’s safety under this administration.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser also expressed gratitude for Secretary Kennedy’s comments, adding that she’s looking forward to the release of new information from the evaluation.
“We are grateful that Secretary Kennedy confirmed the FDA’s review of abortion drugs is now underway and look forward to his promised release of new data after years of the Biden Administration ignoring this urgent issue,” Dannenfelser said. “As women and children are harmed, these dangerous drugs continue to be bought and sold with no commonsense safeguards and no accountability. Enough is enough.”
Additionally, Live Action founder and president Lila Rose responded to Kennedy’s remarks by calling for quick action from the FDA.
“The abortion pill is a dangerous drug made to intentionally kill a developing child in the womb. It has been recklessly marketed as our health officials turn a blind eye, putting countless women and children at risk,” Rose said. “The FDA must act swiftly.”
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The first drug in the abortion pill regimen, mifepristone blocks the action of the growth hormone progesterone, causing the unborn human being in the womb to die of starvation. A second drug, misoprostol, is taken 24–72 hours later to induce contractions to expel the body. Amid the systematic loosening of federal regulations over the past decade (including the FDA’s 2016 removal of the requirement to report complications that do not result in death), 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, have prompted widespread concern for women’s health and safety in addition to increased action to protect the lives of the unborn from the violence of chemical abortion.
