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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is once again spreading misinformation about the abortion drug mifepristone and is taking a step further on the campaign trail by passing legislation to ban it.
this Laws protecting women from chemical abortions, Hawley proposed on Wednesday that he would revoke the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 26-year-old approval of the drug and ban the use of mifepristone for abortion. The bill would also allow women allegedly harmed by the drug to sue the makers of mifepristone.
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“We are here today to issue a call to action,” Hawley said at a news conference announcing the bill. “We call on the U.S. Congress to step up to protect innocent unborn children and protect the health and safety of women whose lives are threatened by the abortion drug mifepristone, and we also call on Congress to stand up to greedy foreign corporations who are making billions of dollars in profits by endangering women’s health.”
Holly, anyone? Continued attack on access to abortion pillsrepeatedly claiming that mifepristone is “intrinsically dangerous” and “completely unregulated.” He highlighted stories of women being coerced or forced to take abortion pills by their boyfriends. Instead of going after those who abuse their partners, Hawley wants to ban a drug that has been widely and safely used by millions since the FDA first approved it in 2000.
The bill is unlikely to pass because Hawley needs 60 votes in the Senate, where Republicans have only 53 seats. But influential Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has expressed support for the bill, saying on Twitter on Thursday that he “All in“About effort.
It makes sense that anti-abortion advocates are eyeing birth control pills: Medication abortions (a combination of mifepristone and another drug, misoprostol) now account for at least Accounts for 63% of all abortion care Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. 2024, 1/4In the United States, abortion is provided via telemedicine.
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“As long as these abortion pills can be mailed to every state, Dobbs’ opinion is essentially a dead letter,” Hawley said at a news conference.
However againHawley pointed out junk science report The report was released last year by the Ethics & Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank and a member of Project 2025’s advisory board. The report claimed that it was “the most well-known study of the abortion pill” and that nearly 11% of women “experienced sepsis, infection, bleeding or other serious adverse events within 45 days of mifepristone abortion.”
But the report has not been peer-reviewed and data scientists have repeatedlywith soundseriousworry About its effectiveness. The EPPC report runs counter to decades of high-quality research and hundreds of studies on mifepristone.
“The science has established: mifepristone is safe and effective,” Blair Dani, vice president for domestic research at the Guttmacher Institute, said in a statement. “Decades of rigorous research in the United States and around the world have consistently shown that serious adverse events occur in less than 1 percent of all medical abortions, a far cry from the one in 10 statistic cited by anti-abortion policymakers in yet another unfounded attempt to limit access to this critical drug.”
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This is just the latest attack from Hawley. Last year, he introduce Law banning abortion pills by mail Push for FDA review Safety of mifepristone, citing EPPC’s junk science report.
It comes as abortion opponents part ways with President Donald Trump. The administrative body is Reportedly walking slowly FDA won’t review mifepristone until after 2026 midterm elections — angering far-right anti-abortion advocates Call for FDA chief to step down. Abortion opponents are also angry at Trump now that he’s in office filed for dismissal last week Federal lawsuit over abortion pill
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