Recently, Stephen Hahn, Food and Drug Admission Commissioner, received a letter asking him to protect women and girls by removing abortion-inducing drugs from the U.S. market. The letter was signed by nearly two dozen Republican senators urging the FDA to "classify the abortion pill as an 'imminent hazard to the public health' that poses a 'significant threat of danger.'"
Senator Ted Cruz, one of the lawmakers who signed onto the letter, proclaimed on Twitter that "pregnancy is not a life-threatening illness and the abortion pill does not cure or prevent any disease."
In the letter, the senators noted: "According to FDA reporting, the abortion pill has taken more than 3.7 million preborn lives, caused 24 maternal deaths, and resulted in at least 4,195 adverse maternal reactions including hemorrhage, excruciating abdominal pain and severe life-threatening infections. The fact is that the abortion pill poses a four-times higher risk of complication than surgical abortion in the first trimester."
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, abortion pills became easily accessible to women. The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift an injunction on an FDA rule which allowed the expansion of "TelAbortions", where women receive Mifeprex, formerly known as RU-486, in the mail.
Christian Post reported that "'TelAbortions' enable abortion clinics to circumvent the Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategies, or REMS, which require a qualified medical professional to dispense the abortion pills at a clinic, hospital or other medical facility." Regarding this problem, the republican senators stated that this case is forcing women "to engage in a form of 'DIY' chemical abortion" and it comes with significant risks.
Although the FDA is continuing to fight to defend the REMS and monitor dangerous clinical studies, the senators argued that "these measures alone fail to protect the thousands of women harmed even by compliant usage of this drug-or the millions of children killed."
