Senators urge FDA to reconsider approval of new abortion pill

Fifty-one Republican senators on Thursday sent a letter to the heads of the Food and Drug Administration and the Health Department, asking them to rescind their recent approval of a generic version of the abortion drug mifepristone. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina headed up the letter’s list of signatories, which also included Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, and several senators with medical degrees. The letter was first shared with Just the News, a D.C.-based news website.

The senators pointed to research from the Ethics and Public Policy Center indicating that women experience serious adverse health events following mifepristone abortions at least 22 times more frequently than reported on drug labels. The lawmakers were encouraged by the government’s pledge to review abortion drugs’ safety, they wrote.

As well as asking the FDA and Health Department to pull the new generic drug’s authorization, the senators asked both departments to suspend the distribution of mifepristone altogether. All versions of the drug should be classified as an imminent hazard, they said.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report on the authorization of the new generic abortion pill.