Four States Ask FDA to Ease Restrictions on Mifepristone

Attorneys general of four states petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ease restrictions on mifepristone, one of two pills involved in a medication abortion and also used to treat miscarriage complications.

California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York say current FDA restrictions make it hard to use mifepristone in primary care settings despite 25 years of evidence of its safety.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary already announced he will order a safety review of the drug at the behest of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), who requested it after release of a paper researchers describe as junk science. The paper by Ethics and Public Policy Center was not peer-reviewed, not published in a medical journal and not up to basic research standards. Without disclosing its data sources, the paper claimed to find a high rate of serious adverse events associated with mifepristone.

Ethics and Public Policy Center is a right wing think tank that served on the board of Project 2025, the blueprint being followed by Donald Trump’s regime. Project 2025 calls for the FDA to withdraw its approval of mifepristone.

Properly conducted research has found serious adverse reactions occur in less than 0.5% of women who take mifepristone, and it is as safe and effective when prescribed through telehealth as it is when prescribed and administered in person.

Mifepristone can only be prescribed by certified health care providers.  Pharmacies must be certified to dispense it. Patients receiving it must sign a form declaring their intention to end their pregnancy.

The attorneys general said these restrictions are not necessary. unnecessary. They say many physicians worry about being targeted as abortion providers, with the extra paperwork making it easier for them to be put on such a list, and many are unwilling to get certified to write that specific prescription.

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