Bill Banning Abortion Pill Seeks to Protect Women, Allow Them to Sue Drug Makers

Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced legislation to revoke the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval for mifepristone, also known as the abortion pill, and to empower women harmed by the drug to sue its manufacturers.

Key Takeaways:

• Sen. Hawley held a press conference to announce the bill, titled the "Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act."
• The bill will be introduced by Hawley in the Senate, and byRep. Diana Harshbarger in the House of Representatives.
• The bill would withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone and allow women harmed by chemical abortion to sue the manufacturers for damage.
• Though abortion activists have lauded mifepristone as safe, data analyses and personal testimonies have shown that many women are being harmed by it.

The Details:

In a press release, Hawley said mifepristone is dangerous, as it harms numerous women in addition to ending the lives of millions of preborn children, even though the abortion industry has deceptively described the abortion pill as "safer than Tylenol." In reality, it is dangerous, yet the FDA has increasingly weakened the safety regulations for mifepristone over the years.

Hawley stated in the press release:

"The science is clear: the chemical abortion drug is inherently dangerous to women and prone to abuse. Yet major companies like Danco Laboratories are making billions off it. That's why I am introducing new legislation to ban the use of mifepristone for abortion and empower women to sue its manufacturers. Congress must act now to protect the health and safety of women."

Hawley also held a press conference :

Present was Shanyce Thomas, a woman who was seriously harmed by taking the abortion pill. A nursing student, Thomas went to Planned Parenthood for a chemical abortion and nearly died as a result. After taking the abortion pill regimen, Thomas was in severe pain, and returned to Planned Parenthood. They told her it was normal and sent her away:

"I was looking lethargic, pale, and gray. My dad rushed me to St. Vincent Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After taking the abortion pill, my body began to shut down.

What started as something I was told would be manageable quickly turned into a medical emergency. I developed a severe infection behind my uterus that went undetected until it became life-threatening. My condition deteriorated so rapidly that I was rushed into ICU at St. Vincent Hospital, where doctors had to place me on an ECMO machine, a last-resort life-support system when the heart and lungs are failing. ECMO is not something people usually survive easily from. And the fact that I needed it shows how critical my condition had become.

I was so unstable that doctors said if I were placed in a helicopter for transfer, I would likely die. Instead, I was transported by ambulance to Hartford HealthCare Hospital.

Fighting for my life every mile of the way, I was [in a] medically induced coma for a month. During this time, I required several blood transfusions due to the severe blood loss and complications from my infection.

My mom, dad, and family was by my side praying each day I would live. Eventually, the damage was so extensive that doctors had no choice but to perform a partial hysterectomy. In one moment, my ability to carry children in the future was taken from me - not by choice, but by necessity to save my life.

I took the abortion pill because I was scared and pressured by my boyfriend to end my child's life. In that process, I almost lost my life as well.

This is why I'm here to speak out. The abortion pill kills, and it ends life of children in the womb, and can have dangerous, life-altering consequences for the women who take it."

Also present at the press conference was Rosalie Markezich, a plaintiff (along with the State of Louisiana) in a lawsuit against the FDA.

When Markezich became pregnant, her boyfriend ordered abortion pills online in her name without her knowledge or consent. Markezich did not want an abortion, but was coerced into it out of fear for her life. She said:

"Those drugs took my child's life. I had already loved my baby and I did not want an abortion. I told my then-boyfriend that repeatedly, but that did not stop him from ordering FDA-approved drugs without my consent. It did not stop him from having the drugs mailed directly to my home, even though it is against the law in Louisiana, nor did it stop him from cornering me in a car and telling me that I'd ruin his life if I kept my baby.

And it certainly did not stop him from becoming so angry that I had feared for my life and my child's life. He watched me swallow those drugs and when I could finally get away, I rushed to the bathroom to try to throw them up. I was unsuccessful.

The blood started coming, and I knew I had lost my baby. I spent the rest of that night on a towel in the garage, soaked in blood. The blood did not stop for over a week, but the mental agony has never left.

My then-boyfriend would not have been able to order these drugs if the FDA hadn't recklessly removed the requirement for an in-person office visit before prescribing them, and if he had tried to force me to go to an abortion clinic to get these drugs, I would have told the doctor I do not want this.

But I was denied that opportunity. I am still haunted by the trauma, and I will mourn my child that I thought I was going to have."

In addition, Rebecca Hagan spoke about how she was left utterly uninformed by an abortion business when she was given the abortion pill, and experienced near-instant regret after she took it. She quickly found "abortion pill reversal" - the administration of the pregnancy hormone progesterone in an effort to outcompete the action of mifepristone - which the abortion industry has claimed is dangerous and illegitimate (though it has been used safely in women at risk of miscarriage for decades, and the abortion industry is aware that it disrupts the action of mifepristone).

Hagan received that treatment in an effort to save her child, and that baby boy will be 13 this year:

Hawley said stories like these are why action needs to be taken.

Congress needs to act," he said. "Only Congress at this stage can withdraw the certification for abortion for mifepristone in an effective way. Only Congress can do it and make it permanent."

Why It Matters:

When mifepristone was originally approved by the FDA, there were stringent safety protocols in place, such as a requirement that the pills were to be taken in-person and in front of a physician, and only through seven weeks gestation.

As reported previously by Live Action Research Fellow Carole Novielli, here is the timeline of changes to the safety protocols:

• 2011: Following reports of serious adverse events, the drug was placed under a safety system known as REMS.
• 2016: Obama's FDA weakened the REMS by enabling the drug to be used up to 10 weeks gestation and removing the requirement that all adverse events other than death be reported. Those changes were pushed and financed by a pro-abortion coalition.
• 2023: Despite a prohibition under the federal Comstock Act, Biden's FDA eroded the REMS further to remove the in-person dispensing requirement and allow for mail-order and pharmacy dispensing of the drug.

A recent analysispublished by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) found that nearly 11% of women who take mifepristone require a visit to the ER or urgent care for a medical emergency. This is 22 times the rate the FDA includes on the mifepristone label.

Rep. Diana Harshbarger stated:

"As a pharmacist, I believe every drug approved in the United States must meet the highest standards of safety, transparency, and medical oversight. Yet the FDA under previous administrations has steadily dismantled critical safety safeguards surrounding the abortion drug mifepristone - removing in-person dispensing requirements, allowing the drug to be shipped through the mail, and limiting adverse-event reporting so that most serious complications are no longer tracked.

Evidence now suggests that the real-world risks to women are far greater than the federal government has acknowledged. That's why I'm proud to join Senator Hawley in introducing the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act, to restore accountability and help ensure that women's health - not politics - guides federal drug policy."

The Bottom Line:

Women deserve better than the abortion pill, which kills preborn children and puts their own lives at risk. As the FDA appears reluctant to take action, perhaps Congress will do so instead.

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