175 lawmakers urge FDA to halt mail-order abortion drugs

The overwhelming majority of Republicans in the U.S. Congress are calling on the Trump administration to end the Biden-era policy of allowing abortion pills to be obtained through the mail amid concerns about the health risks.

In a letter published Thursday, 175 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives urged U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Commissioner Marty Makary to investigate the “deleterious and grossly underreported effects on women of the drug mifepristone,” the first pill in a chemical abortion. All but 44 House Republicans signed onto the letter. 

Lawmakers also asked the Trump administration to “reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.” During the Biden administration, the Food and Drug Administration enabled women to obtain the abortion pill by mail without making an in-person visit to a doctor first. 

The lawmakers cited a study from the right-leaning think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center finding that 10.93% of women who take the abortion pill experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another adverse event as part of “a growing body of evidence indicating that the health risks associated with mifepristone abortions are severe, widespread, and significantly underreported.”

“The dangerous Biden mail-order scheme was designed to give abortion activists license to mail drugs everywhere,” including to states with strong laws against abortions, they wrote.

“These drugs are sent across state lines with no physician oversight, and without appropriate screening to ensure that bad actors are not secretly poisoning women without their knowledge or forcing women to take abortion drugs against their will.”

The Republicans said the fact that chemical abortions constitute two-thirds of total abortions in the U.S. is a result of “the Biden FDA’s reckless, no-contact, mail-order abortion scheme.”

“Abortion providers are reaping increased profits, while women and their unborn children suffer irreparable harm.” The letter concluded with a call to reinstate the requirement for “in-person dispensing of mifepristone” and the expedition of “the promised review by the FDA into the dangers of abortion drugs.”

Makary had previously vowed to conduct a review of mifepristone in a letter to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., earlier this year, while Kennedy promised the same when appearing before the U.S. Senate. 

While the lawmakers praised President Donald Trump for doing “more to advance a culture of life and the protection of women and children from the violence of abortion than any president before him,” the Trump administration faced criticism from the pro-life movement after the FDA approved the development of a generic abortion drug last month. 

In a statement reacting to the letter, which follows the submission of a similar letter from 51 of the 53 Republican U.S. senators last month, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said “[n]o woman or girl should be left alone to take dangerous abortion drugs or be put at risk of coercion by abusers who can easily obtain them online. This is not hypothetical,” she said.

“Just last week, we learned of an Ohio man who ordered abortion drugs online and force-fed them to his pregnant girlfriend against her will. She was hospitalized, and her baby died,” Dannenfelser added.

“Nearly a year into the second Trump administration, FDA policy still allows abortion drugs to be sent through the mail without even confirming that the recipient is a pregnant woman, purchased by abusers who use it to force abortion even if a mother has said NO. Every day the FDA allows Joe Biden’s radical COVID-era abortion drug policy to stand, more unborn children die and more women end up in the [emergency room.]” 

The overwhelming majority of Republicans in the U.S. Congress are calling on the Trump administration to end the Biden-era policy of allowing abortion pills to be obtained through the mail amid concerns about the health risks.

In a letter published Thursday, 175 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives urged U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Commissioner Marty Makary to investigate the “deleterious and grossly underreported effects on women of the drug mifepristone,” the first pill in a chemical abortion. All but 44 House Republicans signed onto the letter. 

Lawmakers also asked the Trump administration to “reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.” During the Biden administration, the Food and Drug Administration enabled women to obtain the abortion pill by mail without making an in-person visit to a doctor first. 

The lawmakers cited a study from the right-leaning think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center finding that 10.93% of women who take the abortion pill experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another adverse event as part of “a growing body of evidence indicating that the health risks associated with mifepristone abortions are severe, widespread, and significantly underreported.”

“The dangerous Biden mail-order scheme was designed to give abortion activists license to mail drugs everywhere,” including to states with strong laws against abortions, they wrote.

“These drugs are sent across state lines with no physician oversight, and without appropriate screening to ensure that bad actors are not secretly poisoning women without their knowledge or forcing women to take abortion drugs against their will.”

The Republicans said the fact that chemical abortions constitute two-thirds of total abortions in the U.S. is a result of “the Biden FDA’s reckless, no-contact, mail-order abortion scheme.”

“Abortion providers are reaping increased profits, while women and their unborn children suffer irreparable harm.” The letter concluded with a call to reinstate the requirement for “in-person dispensing of mifepristone” and the expedition of “the promised review by the FDA into the dangers of abortion drugs.”

Makary had previously vowed to conduct a review of mifepristone in a letter to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., earlier this year, while Kennedy promised the same when appearing before the U.S. Senate. 

While the lawmakers praised President Donald Trump for doing “more to advance a culture of life and the protection of women and children from the violence of abortion than any president before him,” the Trump administration faced criticism from the pro-life movement after the FDA approved the development of a generic abortion drug last month. 

In a statement reacting to the letter, which follows the submission of a similar letter from 51 of the 53 Republican U.S. senators last month, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said “[n]o woman or girl should be left alone to take dangerous abortion drugs or be put at risk of coercion by abusers who can easily obtain them online. This is not hypothetical,” she said.

“Just last week, we learned of an Ohio man who ordered abortion drugs online and force-fed them to his pregnant girlfriend against her will. She was hospitalized, and her baby died,” Dannenfelser added.

“Nearly a year into the second Trump administration, FDA policy still allows abortion drugs to be sent through the mail without even confirming that the recipient is a pregnant woman, purchased by abusers who use it to force abortion even if a mother has said NO. Every day the FDA allows Joe Biden’s radical COVID-era abortion drug policy to stand, more unborn children die and more women end up in the [emergency room.]”