(LifeSiteNews) — Congress should protect women and unborn children from coerced abortions because all life is sacred, according to Indiana Congressman Mark Messmer.
Congressman Messmer, who represents Indiana’s 8th District, provided comments to LifeSiteNews via a phone interview on Friday. Rep. Messmer said his Catholic faith drives him to do what he can to protect the preborn.
To that end, he has introduced the Forced Abortion Prevention and Accountability Act to crack down on women being coerced or tricked into taking abortion drugs. Fellow Hoosier Republican Jim Banks is introducing companion legislation in the Senate.
“As a Catholic, I believe my faith teaches me that we’re all created in God’s likeness and image and that life is sacred,” Messmer told LifeSiteNews on Friday. “As [a] society, [we] should do all we can to protect innocent life from conception to natural death.”
His Catholic faith is what drives his “pro-life perspective.”
The legislation “establishes federal penalties for the intentional administration of abortion-inducing drugs without a woman’s informed consent,” according to a news release.
“Penalties apply to anyone who sells, ships, mails, or gives abortion-inducing drugs without taking reasonable measures to verify the recipient is a pregnant woman seeking an abortion,” the congressman’s office said.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed on behalf of women who said they were either coerced or tricked into taking the deadly abortion drugs.
“It’s sad that we even need to address an issue like this,” Congressman Messmer told LifeSiteNews.
He said he is looking for opportunities in 2026 to “attach” the bill to other legislation, expressing concerns about it passing on its own. Messmer said he expects the legislation could pass in the U.S. House but will face a tougher battle in the Senate.
“We’ll look for opportunities on something that’s a must-pass situation that we can attach it to,” Messmer said.
He said he hopes to win over pro-abortion Democrats to his side on this issue.
“We’re just getting the ball rolling,” he said, but “I would think even there would be a likelihood that a pro-abortion supporter could see this kind of action as being outside the normal scope of supporting abortion ‘rights.’”
“We’ll have that discussion,” he said. The congressman said he is looking forward to a future hearing on the issue.
Abortion drugs remain constant issue for protecting human life
The proliferation of dangerous abortion drugs began after Joe Biden’s administration ignored longstanding federal statutes to allow companies and activists to flood the United States with the pills.
The availability of abortion drugs has in some ways undermined the work of states to prohibit or limiting the killing of innocent preborn babies. Around 6 in 10 aborted babies are now killed through the abortion pill, which is freely available through activist networks and at some pharmacies.
While President Donald Trump has taken some positive actions on the issue of human life, his administration has faced criticism for its stance on abortion drugs.
Even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) promised a review of abortion drug dangers, it also approved a new pill, leading to backlash from Senator Josh Hawley and pro-life groups.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s slow walking of a review led to calls for his firing from pro-life leaders.
As LifeSiteNews previously reported:
Bloomberg reported that the reason for that is, allegedly, “behind the scenes, Makary has told agency officials to delay the safety review” until “after the midterm elections,” according to unnamed “people familiar with the discussions.” In response to congressional inquiries about the agency’s silence, the FDA has repeatedly assured them the review is ongoing.
Makary responded to the accusation in an interview with the Daily Signal, lamenting that “we live in a very partisan time, and so you’re going to see the echo chambers of social media sort of magnify rumors, things that are just not true. There has been an ongoing review of mifepristone.”
“If Dr. Makary will not act as head of the FDA to protect children and mothers he should be fired,” Lila Rose said. “No more empty promises,” the American Association of Pro Life OBGYNs said.
Abortion drugs can never truly be safe, because they always intend to kill an innocent human life.
Furthermore, the drugs are harmful to women, as confirmed in a detailed study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
“10.93 percent of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following a mifepristone abortion,” the Ethics and Public Policy Center found in a report. “The real-world rate of serious adverse events following mifepristone abortions is at least 22 times as high as the summary figure of ‘less than 0.5 percent’ in clinical trials reported on the drug label.”
The National Right to Life Committee has also raised concerns about the accuracy of data on the alleged safety of abortion drugs.
