Nearly two dozen GOP lawmakers, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), have called on the Food and Drug Administration to classify the abortion pill RU-486, also known as mifepristone, as an “imminent hazard to the public health.”
“It is by now nakedly obvious that the abortion industry and its allies in the media, billionaire philanthropic circles, and special interest groups, have wanted an unregulated and de-medicalized abortion pill since the moment the FDA first approved it in 2000,” wrote Cruz and others in a letter sent this week to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn.
In the letter, the Republican lawmakers praised the FDA for attempting to enforce safety protocols surrounding the abortifacient pill, according to National Review. In May, pro-abortion activists filed a lawsuit against the FDA, alleging its risk evaluation mitigation strategy, which requires a patient to participate in an in-person consultation prior to obtaining RU-486, results in “unnecessary travel and in-person interactions” during the coronavirus pandemic, while other medical consultations have resorted to telemedicine appointments.
A federal judge ultimately sided with the pro-abortion lobby in July, suspending the FDA’s safety requirements by arguing the COVID-19 pandemic had rendered them unconstitutional. The GOP senators called the judge’s decision “rogue judicial activism” and “a gross breach of the separation of powers, undermining the FDA’s statutory authority to ensure drug safety, while recklessly endangering American women and children.”
They went on to call the move an “opportunistic ploy to expand access to abortion under the fallacy that the REMS imposes an undue burden on women’s rights.”
RU-486, it should be noted, has been linked to fatalities and other serious complications.
“We believe this deadly pill should never have been approved, yet the abortion industry was politically rewarded with an accelerated approval process normally reserved for high-risk drugs that address life-threatening illnesses like AIDS,” the lawmakers stated. “As you are surely aware, pregnancy is not a life-threatening illness, and the abortion pill does not cure or prevent any disease.”
Cruz was joined by 19 other GOP senators. In the House of Representatives, Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) sent a similar letter signed by more than 70 other House members.