Hawley Moves to Wipe Abortion Pill off the Market — And Give Women the Power to Fight Back Against Big Pharma
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley introduced sweeping new legislation Tuesday aimed at pulling the abortion drug mifepristone from the American market entirely, marking one of the most aggressive congressional challenges yet to the widely used pill.
The bill, titled the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act, targets the FDA approval that has allowed mifepristone to remain legally available since 2000.
If enacted, the legislation would formally withdraw the FDA’s authorization of the drug and classify its distribution for abortion purposes as a direct violation of federal law.
The bill also creates a legal pathway for women harmed by mifepristone to file civil lawsuits against the drug’s manufacturers.
“The science is clear: The chemical abortion drug is inherently dangerous to women and prone to abuse. Yet major companies like Danco Laboratories are making billions off it,” Hawley said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“That’s why I am introducing new legislation to ban the use of mifepristone for abortion and empower women to sue its manufacturers. Congress must act now to protect the health and safety of women,” Hawley added.
Fox reported that according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, mifepristone was used in 63% of all abortions performed in the United States in 2023.
The Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research organization with prior ties to Planned Parenthood, estimates that 1,038,100 clinician-provided abortions took place in 2024.
That number, however, only reflects states without abortion bans and excludes procedures conducted outside of the formal healthcare system.
Hawley’s new bill builds on earlier legislation he introduced last May, which sought to direct the FDA to impose new safeguards on mifepristone and grant women who experienced complications the right to pursue damages against telehealth providers and pharmacies.
The Washington, D.C.-based Ethics and Public Policy Center conducted a study finding that the rate of adverse side effects from mifepristone runs 22 times higher than what the FDA’s approved drug label indicates.
That same research found that more than 1 in 10 women reported experiencing “infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious or life-threatening adverse event” after taking the drug.
The EPPC study drew its conclusions from 865,727 insurance claims filed between 2017 and 2023 by women who used mifepristone to end early pregnancies.
Under current FDA guidelines, the pill may be taken up to “70 days since the first day of their last menstrual period.”
During the Biden administration, the FDA expanded access to mifepristone by allowing it to be prescribed through telehealth services, removing the requirement for patients to see a doctor in person before obtaining the drug.
In 2024, the Supreme Court unanimously declined to reverse the FDA’s expanded approval, but the ruling centered solely on whether the challengers — the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine — held legal standing to bring the case. The justices did not weigh in on the drug’s safety or merits.
Hawley previously wrote to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, reminding him of commitments made during his Senate confirmation hearing.
“[D]uring your confirmation hearing, you pledged to me that you would ‘review the totality of the data and ongoing data’ to inform action on the drug,” Hawley’s letter states.
“I urge you to follow this new data and take all appropriate action to restore critical safeguards on the use of mifepristone. The health and safety of American women depend on it.”
Fox highlighted that Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger, a pharmacist by profession, announced plans to introduce companion legislation in the House this week.
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