HYDE-SMITH SAYS FDA CAN’T DISMISS RAMIFICATIONS OF LAX CHEMICAL ABORTION DRUG REGS
At Hearing, Hyde-Smith Seeks FDA Response to Stockpiling of Chemical Abortion Drugs
VIDEO: Senator Hyde-Smith Challenges Lax FDA Regulations on Access to Abortion Drugs.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, today again challenged the lax standards set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that permit access to chemical abortion drugs without seeing a physician, including the stockpiling of abortion pills through advance prescribing.
At a Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing to review the FY2025 FDA budget request, Hyde-Smith told FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf that she found it illogical that in-person physician visits are required to get some prescription medications, like sinus relief, but can get the dangerous abortion pill regimen without ever seeing a healthcare provider.
“Commissioner Califf, I have repeatedly brought your attention to the dangers that women face when allowed dangerous life-ending chemical abortion drugs, which can be ordered by consumers through the mail or purchased in retail pharmacies without ever seeing a doctor in person,” Hyde-Smith said.
“The FDA is supposed to protect Americans from taking medications that could be harmful. However, you continue to look the other way and claim mifepristone is ‘safe,’ in part, based on the lack of reports of non-fatal adverse events, due to the FDA’s own relaxed reporting requirements, and continue to allow women to put their lives at risk in the name of the pro-abortion agenda,” the Senator said.
Following the hearing, Hyde-Smith expressed dismay with Califf distancing the FDA from having any role in addressing the practice of stockpiling abortion pills through advance prescribing from abortion companies and providers.
“It’s completely unacceptable that the FDA could just open the floodgates to these chemical abortion pills and not accept any responsibility when that access is abused through the advance prescribing of mifepristone,” Hyde-Smith said. “Simply saying the FDA does not ‘regulate the practice of medicine’ should not absolve the FDA from the ramifications of the women and girls who could be harmed by these abortion drugs.”
Hyde-Smith and U.S. Representative August Pfluger (R-Texas) in February led a bicameral amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. The brief, singed by Signed by 26 Senators and 119 House members, strongly refuted FDA deregulation of chemical abortion drugs in 2016 and 2021, including allowing the distribution of mail-order abortion drugs.
In 2016, the FDA eased safety precautions regarding the distribution of the abortion drugs, including doing away with in-person and follow-up doctor visits, and eliminating reporting requirements for non-fatal adverse events. During the pandemic, FDA in 2021 allowed mifepristone to be delivered by mail in violation of Federal law.
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