RFK Jr. launches FDA safety review of abortion pill mifepristone

Well being secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Says that the FDA will launch a safety evaluation of the Abortus Pil Mifepistone after a request of twenty-two states led by the Republicans.

The FDA’s choice to re -visit the security of the tablet is feeding extra to make sure that it will likely be additional restricted below President Donald Trump’s administration. It additionally emphasizes how the Pill used in most American abortions is still entangled in politics who’ve plagued it for nearly ten years.

FDA Mifepistone Evaluate

In keeping with ABC NewsKennedy and FDA commissioner Marty Makary are launching the evaluation on the request of twenty-two Republican Procurents Common.

What they are saying:

The FDA mentioned that “it could perform its personal analysis of the proof, together with Actual-World outcomes and proof, with regard to the security and effectiveness of the medication.”

RELATED: Costco quotes a lack of demand for non -selling Mifepristone medicine at American pharmacies

“This administration will be certain that girls’s well being is correctly protected by totally investigating the circumstances, which may be safely printed,” RFK and Makary wrote in a letter to the lawyer common.

US President Donald Trump, Left, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US Secretary of Well being and Human Companies (HHS), Within the Roosevelt Room of the White Home in Washington, DC, US, on Monday 22 September 2025. (Photographer: Francis Chung/Bloomberg VI

Of their request to the FDA, the attorneys Common known as a research of the Ethics and Public Coverage Middle, a conservative suppose tank, however the research was not peer-reviewed, nor was it printed in a scientific journal.

The opposite facet:

Medical consultants have mentioned that the analysis “isn’t scientifically supported and have to be rejected.”

“Mifepristone has been studied for 3 a long time and scientific proof is unambiguous that the medication is protected and efficient”, the Society of Household Planning, a analysis group for abortion, said in a letter to the FDA. “However the overwhelming proof, we perceive that you’ve obtained requests to use scientifically invalid claims about its security on an evaluation of the Mifepristone label. Now we have critical issues a few latest such request that is determined by a self-published, non-pear-judged paper.”

FDA says that Mifepristone is protected

The background story:

The FDA accredited Mifepistone in 2000 as a protected and efficient method to finish early pregnancies. It’s usually used with Misoprostol, one other drugs, to finish pregnancies within the US

In 2023 the tablet was utilized in greater than six in 10 of the abortions within the US, it is usually one of many few methods to supply abortions the place abortion is forbidden, as a result of suppliers in different states can e-mail abortus capsules to girls in states the place it’s unlawful, ABC Information experiences.

RELATED: Most Americans still support legal abortion 3 years after Roe v. Wade was destroyed: Poll

In 2016, the FDA launched restrictions on the drug to permit it to prescribe as much as 10 weeks of being pregnant and to prescribe nurses and different medical professionals. In 2021, the company mentioned that the medication might be despatched by mail and would make a protracted -term requirement that ladies will gather the medication personally.

Final yr, the Supreme Court refused to limit access to Mifepistone Within the aftermath of Roe v. Wade was destroyed, however the choice of the Supreme Courtroom did make future coverage modifications.

OB-Gyn’s say {that a} small proportion of sufferers have “main” or “critical” unwanted side effects after taking Mifepriston. In keeping with the FDA’s personal knowledge, for the reason that approval in 2000, there have been 5 lifeless for each 1 million individuals who used Mifepristone, a loss of life price of 0.0005%, CNN reports.

In keeping with the Guttmacher Institute, there have been greater than 1 million abortions within the US final yr, a suppose tank that helps abortion rights.