Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Demand Answers from Trump On New “Review” of Mifepristone Despite Decades of Evidence Proving its Safety & Efficacy

Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Demand Answers from Trump On New "Review" of Mifepristone Despite Decades of Evidence Proving its Safety & Efficacy

Senators Raise Alarm Over Looming Efforts to Restrict Medication Abortion

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today they have joined Senate colleagues to express alarm over the Trump administration's plans to conduct "its own review of the evidence" on the safety and effectiveness of the abortion medication mifepristone.

"Decades of evidence and hundreds of studies prove the safety and efficacy of mifepristone, which is not only the most common method of abortion in the U.S., but is also frequently prescribed to women to help manage early pregnancy loss or miscarriage. We are alarmed by the Department's obvious attempts to politicize the review, regulation, and approval of mifepristone at the FDA, and we write to request more information," the senators wrote to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kennedy and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Makary.

The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 and today it is used in the overwhelming majority of abortions in the United States. Wyden has long warned that restricting access to mifepristone would amount to a near total nationwide abortion ban.

Access to medication abortion is more critical than ever in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's disastrous Dobbs decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion and let dozens of states enact extreme abortion bans that threaten women's health and lives. According to data from Guttmacher, medication abortion accounted for nearly two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. in 2023, the first year after the Dobbs decision.

The letter lays into a recent junk science "report" put out by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), an avowedly anti-abortion think tank, that appears to be the basis for the Trump administration's announced review of mifepristone. The EPPC report parrots anti-abortion disinformation, was not peer-reviewed or published in any medical journal, and has been widely criticized by reputable health organizations since its release.

"By elevating the sham EPPC report as rationale for restricting access to mifepristone, HHS is blatantly undermining well-established science and weaponizing disinformation to fit the Trump administration's clear agenda to cut off abortion access in any way possible," the senators wrote. "FDA relying on a partisan, sham report as part of the evidence review for any drug is deeply concerning-and in this case, it's clear that the Trump administration is downright eager to do away with established science if it helps further their extreme anti-abortion agenda."

Mifepristone is already subject to burdensome Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requirements that must be followed for prescribing and dispensing mifepristone-in fact, FDA already restricts mifepristone more heavily than 99.5% of the over 20,000 prescription drugs it regulates. On October 30^th, a federal court ruled that the FDA's explanation for its current restrictions on mifepristone is unreasoned, unsupported, and illogical.

"That court order reinforces that, in conducting this new review, FDA may not cherry-pick junk science serving an anti-abortion agenda, but must instead look at the full body of evidence both confirming mifepristone's safety and underscoring the harms of the FDA's onerous restrictions," the senators wrote.

"The bottom line is that access to mifepristone allows patients to receive time-sensitive, essential health care, including abortion care and miscarriage management," the senators continued. "If HHS insists on rejecting the science that clearly proves mifepristone is safe and effective, and instead decides to impose additional restrictions on its use, this will force countless women to carry pregnancies to term against their will-regardless of the consequences for their health or lives."

"The American people need to be able to trust that any reviews, regulations, and approvals of medication by HHS and FDA are based on science and evidence-not on partisan attempts to attack abortion access," the senators concluded. "It is critical that scientific experts and evidence are central to any FDA review or REMS initiative. Mifepristone has long been shown to be safe and effective, and there is no new evidence to justify burdensome restrictions that block women from getting the health care they need."

The letter was led by U.S. Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash. In addition to Wyden and Merkley, the letter was also signed by the entire Senate Democratic caucus.

Wyden and Merkley have been champions for expanding access to women's essential health care. In 1990, Wyden chaired the first ever congressional hearing on mifepristone. In 2023, Wyden introduced the My Body, My Data Act, which would have created a new national standard to protect reproductive and sexual health data.

The full letter is here.