(LifeSiteNews) – Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its approval of a dangerous new abortion drug. Sen. Hawley made the comments during a press call Wednesday organized by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA) and attended by LifeSiteNews.
“I am very concerned to see the FDA follow the science on this issue,” he said on the call, pointing out the Ethics and Public Policy Center report affirmed the danger of the drugs. The study used hundreds of thousands of insurance claims and studied a data set larger than the FDA has ever used.
“That is a tremendous number of people,” Hawley said on the call. “At the very least, we need to have a full and thorough review” of mifepristone’s safety, the Republican senator said. However, he said on the call Wednesday that no such abortion drug review has been completed despite past promises. He called the approval “deeply concerning.”
The Biden administration “removed the historic guardrails” on mifepristone, Hawley said.
Instead of reinstating guardrails, the FDA “expedited” approval of the new drug. Hawley said no one has answered his questions as to what the agency did so.
“My plea to the FDA is to follow the science,” he said, calling for an end to approving generic abortion drugs, given the “serious health risks.”
“I have not yet heard back” from FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, Hawley said, even though he sent the letter a month ago.
Hawley has been a staunch defender of the dignity of preborn babies, regularly criticizing Makary and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for not acting to protect women from the abortion drugs. Sen. Hawley also criticized the “surprise approval” of a generic abortion drug while a safety review is reportedly underway.
The national pro-life group released survey results on Tuesday that show most Americans want to see at least some limits on the distribution of dangerous chemical abortion drugs, according to a new survey from SBA. The survey results show support for reinstating a doctor visit, ending widespread mailing of the drugs, and screening for risk factors, according to SBA president Marjorie Dannenfelser, who spoke on the call today.
“This abortion pill is an instrument” used to undermine state pro-life protections, Dannenfelser also said. About 63% of abortions are committed using the drugs, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
“It’s only through the mail,” and could be from an abusive boyfriend or trafficker, Dannenfelser warned on the call.
She further criticized the widespread use of the drugs in a statement released with the study.
“The harmful impact of Biden’s FDA removing safeguards on abortion drugs, like in-person doctor visits, is an issue that overwhelmingly unites voters of all stripes,” Dannenfelser said. “As a growing body of research indicates, these drugs are far more dangerous than advertised, and new horror stories emerge day after day of women coerced and drugged against their will, landing in the ER and even dying along with their babies, Americans’ concerns are more than valid.”
“Even a strong majority of liberal voters agree in-person doctor visits and screening for coercion and abuse are simply common sense, yet the Biden FDA recklessly tossed them aside to push a pro-abortion agenda,” she said.
The survey affirms 7 in 10 voters want to roll back the Biden administration’s elimination of practically every safeguard for the distribution of dangerous abortion drugs. While the drugs can never truly be safe because they are used to kill innocent preborn babies, they also post a direct threat to the health of the woman taking them, as affirmed by medical experts.
The drugs have faced heavy scrutiny for their alleged use by abusive men to coerce or trick the mother of their children into killing their preborn babies. The use of the drugs is now the subject of several lawsuits.
According to SBA, 70% of voters “approve of requiring doctors to screen for and report signs of coercion or abuse before prescribing abortion drugs.”
A majority of voters also oppose efforts to flood pro-life states with abortion drugs, as abortionists from California and New York have done.
“The majority of voters disapprove of allowing out-of-state nurses and pharmacists to send abortion drugs to women in any state without any in-person medical care or a doctor’s visit,” SBA reported. “Eight in 10 voters agree no one should be able to get abortion drugs online or from a foreign country and be able to give them to a woman without her knowledge or consent.”
Fifty-one Republican senators have also demanded answers from the FDA about approval. The only Republicans to not sign onto the letter were pro-abortion Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Both support the killing of innocent preborn babies.
