{"id":230099,"date":"2020-09-02T14:33:50","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T19:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=230099"},"modified":"2020-09-04T12:47:40","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T17:47:40","slug":"dozens-congressional-leaders-letter-fda-abortion-pill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dozens-congressional-leaders-letter-fda-abortion-pill\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens of congressional leaders send letter urging FDA to ban abortion pill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Twenty senators led by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter on Tuesday to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting that the abortion pill be classified as dangerous and taken off the market.\u00a0In the U.S. House, Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) also led a group of 72 representatives in sending a letter<\/a> making the same request.<\/p>\n

“[G]iven the devastating impact this drug has had on American women and children, we must now urge the FDA to exercise its authority … and classify the abortion pill as an ‘imminent hazard to the public health’ that poses a ‘significant threat of danger’ and remove this pill from the U.S. market,” the letter<\/a> addressed to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, M.D., states.<\/p>\n

The FDA approved the abortion pill in 2000<\/a> and placed safety requirements on it known as a “risk evaluation mitigation strategy” (REMS). REMS requires<\/a>\u00a0the first drug in the abortion pill regimen, mifepristone, to be dispensed at an in-person visit to an abortion provider due to the health risks associated with the drug. The provider must prove competence to properly date the pregnancy, be able to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy, be able to provide or arrange “surgical intervention” (since the abortion pill failure rate<\/a> increases with gestational age), and more. However, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a federal judge halted<\/a> the in-person REMS requirement and later expanded his decision to allow the abortion pill to be obtained online and in pharmacies without seeing a health professional for the duration of the pandemic. The abortion industry, which had been pushing for at-home abortion pill use for years, is now urging the FDA to permanently drop<\/a> the REMS requirement.<\/p>\n

“We believe that this rogue judicial activism is 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,” the letter states. “The FDA must resist this opportunistic ploy to expand access to abortion under the fallacy that the REMS imposes an undue burden on women’s rights.”<\/p>\n