Yesterday, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) joined Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA) to call on the FDA to reevaluate its recent approval of a generic version of the abortion drug mifepristone.
FDA needs to quit approving new abortion drugs and put safety standards back in place. There are more abortions now than when Roe was law.
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 28, 2025
FDA needs to act https://t.co/tXf3NKgMxr
Earlier this month, Hawley said he was 'baffled' by the FDA's decision to approve the medication.
"This is shocking. FDA has just approved ANOTHER chemical abortion drug, when the evidence shows chemical abortion drugs are dangerous and even deadly for the mother. And of course 100% lethal to the child," Hawley wrote on X.
He was also one of several senators who sent a letter to Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., urging them to end the lax Biden administration rules and conduct studies on the safety of these drugs.
In April of this year, a study revealed that chemical abortion drugs like mifepristone have a far higher risk for "serious complications" than previously reported by the FDA. As Townhall reported at the time:
According to the most recent data provided by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, 63 percent of abortions of all clinician-provided abortions in 2023 in states without total abortion bans were medication abortions.
One topic the pro-abortion lobby doesn’t touch on is the amount of women who suffer from dangerous health effects as a result of taking mifepristone, the “abortion pill.”
According to a report published this week, nearly 11 percent of women who have taken a chemical abortion pill in recent years have experienced a serious health event as a result. This ranges from infections to sepsis.
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The FDA previously said the risk of serious complications from chemical abortion drugs was 0.5 percent.
On October 8, SBA held a press call to discuss how the Biden-era easing of rules governing access to abortion pills put the lives of women and unborn children at risk. SBA president Marjorie Dannenfelser said of the rules, "Let's just start by saying that the Biden era, COVID-era decision to allow abortion drugs to be sent through the mail without in-person doctor visits has been a disaster for women."
This included a harrowing story from Catherine Herring, who found out she was pregnant shortly after separating from her husband. Herring said her estranged spouse tried more than half a dozen times to end her pregnancy with abortion drugs he likely ordered through the mail without Herring's knowledge.
During yesterday's press call, Dannenfelser began by calling for the Trump administration to revise the rules governing doctor visits. "I think that what you will hear loud and clear throughout this webcast is a very important message to the FDA and to the administration, this one thing, that to restore the in-person doctor's visits."
Dannenfelser continued, emphasizing the damage the Biden administration's rules did, "Therefore, there's no sonogram. There's dispensing through the mail, coming from who knows where to who knows who...And it might be, actually, through your boyfriend, or your ex-husband, or a trafficker who has an interest in you not continuing a pregnancy, bringing a baby to term because of their own interests."
She also called this a "new form of domestic violence."
Hawley began by reiterating the study that showed the high risk of serious complications of mifepristone. "That is a tremendous number of people," Hawley said. "So, at the very least, we need to have a full and thorough review of the data related to mifeprestone, the health risks related to mifeprestone, and we need to see the reinstatement of safety guardrails and guidelines that have historically accompanied this drug."
He also reminded us that the Biden administration removed the "historic guardrails" surrounding the drug. "All of those things are gone now, and we have hard data that shows that a tremendous number of women who are taking this drug without any support from a doctor, either before or after the taking of the drug or experiencing major and serious adverse health events."
Hawley also said he's concerned by the FDA's quick approval of the generic drug. "They've approved it on an expedited timeline compared to what other generics, the process that they went through for this same drug.I've received no explanation to date as to why the FDA would approve, on a generic… at an elevated pace, at an expedited timeline, a drug that is under serious safety review, or supposed to be."
"All I would say is I think that lawmakers deserve to have answers, the public deserves to have answers, and they deserve an FDA that is going to follow the science of this issue," Hawley added.
Fellow Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) also joined the call. Cassidy, a physician, said, "It's clear that chemically induced abortion can have major side effects for the health of a woman. Not every time, but enough times that we have to be aware of it." Cassidy also pointed out the abuse of pregnant women thanks to the proliferation of these abortion drugs. He noted the case from his home state, where a mother circumvented Louisiana's pro-life laws and ordered abortion pills from New York before coercing her pregnant daughter to take them.
"So, there's so much wrong with that," Cassidy remarked.
Tim Edson, former NRSC political director, was also on the call. He was representing McLaughlin & Associates and their new poll. Edson noted that a majority of voters, including Democrats, agree with the need for in-person doctor visits and a restoration of the guardrails removed by the Biden administration. "It's very common sense to voters that there should be a doctor's visit in order to get a chemical abortion drug. And as you kind of drill down into this data, you can see here, there's not a lot of variation. Look at Trump states, look at Harris states. On approve, disapprove, or requiring a doctor's visit you can see it's a very marginal difference."
Lindsey Sykes, Director of Life Choices Pregnancy Resource Center in Louisiana said her facility has seen the damages of these policies, too. "We've had to care for women that went out of state and traveled to receive pills from, you know, what they thought was a reputable medical place," Sykes said. Those women are then told this "reputable place" cannot help them. "We're routinely having to refer women to the ER with complications from the pills, to receive the medical care that they're needing," Sykes added.
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