Senate hearing examines abortion pill after FDA approval of new generic version

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- A Senate committee held a hearing on the abortion pill Jan. 14 as the Trump administration faces scrutiny from some pro-lifers over the Food and Drug Administration's recent approval of a new generic form of the drug.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a contentious hearing on what its Republican majority called "protecting women from dangerous abortion drugs." Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. called the effort a "sham hearing on medication abortion."

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the HELP Committee, as it's known, noted the hearing was being held shortly before the upcoming March for Life in Washington, and argued that mifepristone -- a pill commonly, but not exclusively, used for early abortion -- presents significant risks to those who take it, particularly outside of medical settings.

"At an absolute minimum, the previous in-person safeguards should be restored, and it should be done immediately," Cassidy said.

The committee's Democrats argued the drug is safe and attempts to restrict it are an attempt to ban abortion outright.

"Let's be clear about what this hearing is about, not the safety of a drug," argued Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the ranking member. "It is about the ongoing effort of my friends in the Republican Party to deny the women of this country the basic right to control their own bodies."

Although the committee's Republicans took aim at the drug, in September, the FDA, which operates under the Department of Health and Human Services, notified Evita Solutions that its generic version of mifepristone was approved, despite previous suggestions from FDA and Department of Health and Human Services officials that mifepristone would undergo a review.

The approval of the drug sparked outcry from pro-life advocates, including Cassidy and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., also a member of the HELP Committee.

In December, the White House rejected a call from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which works to elect pro-life candidates to public office, for FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to be fired after allegations he was slow-walking a safety review of mifepristone in addition to the FDA's approval of the new generic.

On its website, Evita Solutions calls mifepristone "an effective, safe way to terminate early pregnancy."

At the hearing, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., also a committee member, argued the Biden administration "made the reckless decision to allow online pharmacies to prescribe dangerous chemical abortion drugs and to let mail order pharmacies ship them directly to women without a real consultation with a doctor."

"However," he continued, "I'm disappointed that the FDA, under Dr. Makary's leadership, hasn't moved faster to restore the in-person dispensing requirement and strengthen the (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) program for mifepristone."

Banks said he hopes "the rumors are false -- some of them are in print -- that the agency is intentionally slow-walking its study on the mifepristone."

"I really hope that that's not the case," he said, adding, "I was hoping that Dr. Makary would be here today, so that we could ask him some of these questions directly and clear up those rumors."

In December, Kush Desai, a spokesman for the White House, said in written comments provided to OSV News that Makary "is working diligently to ensure that Americans have the best possible, Gold Standard Science study of mifepristone."

"The White House maintains the utmost confidence in Commissioner Makary, whose leadership at the FDA has delivered and continues to deliver one landmark victory for the American people after another, from cracking down on artificial ingredients in our food supply to conducting the first safety review of baby formula in decades," Desai said. "Uninformed attacks against Commissioner Makary from individuals outside the Administration will not change these facts."

Witnesses at the hearing included Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, Dr. Monique Chireau Wubbenhorst, a senior fellow at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame and an adjunct professor at Indiana University School of Medicine, as well as Dr. Nisha Verma, a fellow at Physicians for Reproductive Health.

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion.

Approved by the FDA for early abortion in 2000, mifepristone -- the first of two drugs used in a medication-based abortion -- gained the moniker "the abortion pill."

However, the same drug combination has become used sometimes in recent years for miscarriage care, where an unborn child has already passed away, a situation that Catholic teaching would hold as morally licit use.