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Washington, D.C. –Today, Live Action was joined by twenty-two other prominent human rights groups, including two medical associations, in demanding that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn exercise his authority under 21 CFR § 2.5 to ban the abortion pill as an imminent danger to public health. On July 13, 2020, an Obama-appointed federal judge ruled in favor of the abortion industry’s request that the in-person requirement of the FDA’s Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategy (REMS) be blocked during COVID-19. The abortion lobby argued that the requirement that women be prescribed the abortion pill in a healthcare setting is an “undue burden” to abortion access during COVID-19, but has openly acknowledged that it considers REMS “medically unnecessary” and has been campaigning for its removal for years. The signatories include the leadership of the American College of Pediatricians, American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Samaritan’s Purse, Susan B. Anthony List, Heritage Action, National Right to Life, and others.

In their letter, delivered to Commissioner Hahn, the pro-life organizations argued:

“This rogue judicial activism is a gross breach of the separation of powers, undermining the FDA’s statutory authority to regulate drug safety, while recklessly endangering American women and preborn children. The FDA must fight back.”  

The drug, mifepristone (most commonly sold under the brand name ‘Mifeprex’) blocks the pregnancy hormone progesterone, resulting in starvation of a developing child in the womb. Mifepristone also poses risks to women so serious that the FDA placed the drug under REMS. The REMS for Mifeprex requires that women attend an in-person consultation at a qualified facility where the drug is dispensed by a certified provider. At this in-person visit, the woman must be given patient information materials that alert her to potential risks such as hemorrhage and infection (which are potentially life-threatening), and a missed ectopic pregnancy diagnosis, which can also be fatal. 

Lila Rose, Founder and President of Live Action, said that mifepristone should never have been approved in the first place, and that a ban on the abortion pill is long overdue. 

“Mifepristone was not designed to heal an illness or manage symptoms of a disease; rather, it was designed to kill children. Mifepristone is not medicine or healthcare. 

“When the FDA approves drugs, it analyzes whether the risks of the drug outweigh its benefits. There are no benefits to mifepristone. The ‘successful’ outcome of mifepristone ingestion is a dead child, and the possible side-effects are an injured or dead woman.  “It is a grave injustice that the FDA approved mifepristone for U.S. distribution under Bill Clinton twenty years ago, and it is twenty years past time that our elected and appointed federal leaders take the necessary action to ban this catastrophic drug within U.S. borders. Stop the killing. Ban the drug.”

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