FDA pushes abortion drug safety review back to March

The Food and Drug Administration’s safety review of the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone will not be completed until next year, according to a Wednesday court filing. Federal officials planned to finish the long-awaited safety review in mid-December but not release the findings until March, according to the court-ordered update. Pro-life activists on Thursday pushed back on the case update, once again accusing the administration of slow-walking the long-promised review.

The court documents were filed as part of a lawsuit by the state of Louisiana, challenging the FDA’s decision allowing mifepristone to be delivered via mail. Mifepristone, known as an abortion-inducing drug, blocks the mother’s production of the hormone progesterone, causing the uterine lining to thin and make the uterus uninhabitable for an embryo. Federal attorneys petitioned the court last January to stop case proceedings until the FDA completed its mifepristone risk evaluation and mitigation strategy.

Pro-life response? The Trump administration promised over a year ago to review mifepristone, but there’s been no proof that the review has even started, let alone made progress, Americans United for Life CEO John Mize said Wednesday. He further insisted that the study be based on real-world data rather than the FDA’s internally sourced data. Mize further suggested that the FDA pushed back the report until after the Nov. 3 Congressional midterm elections.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser similarly characterized the update as alarming. She called on the administration to restore in-person-only dispensing of the drug, thereby settling the case with Louisiana. The FDA keeps promising a gold-standard study, but all it’s done is peddle fool's gold, she wrote in a Wednesday statement.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report about the Supreme Court’s impact on the in-mail abortion pill issue.