On July 8, six organizations (including AAPLOG) representing 30,000 medical professionals sent a letter urging the heads of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to address the dangers posed by unregulated abortion drugs. The letter, led by AAPLOG and signed by the American College of Pediatricians (ACPedS), the American College of Family Medicine (ACFM), the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), the Coptic Medical Association of North America (CMANA), and the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM), offers an overview of the abortion drug mifepristone’s dangers (including recent insurance claims data that shows that nearly 1 in 9 women who take it experience a severe adverse event), exposits how these harms are exacerbated by its deregulation over the past decade, and refutes misinformation promoted by the abortion industry about the drug’s safety. The letter also urges HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary to commission further research into mifepristone’s safety and reinstate basic safeguards regulating its use.
“Americans must be able to trust that no matter what, the FDA will rely on the most robust safety standards before and after approving any drug and that they can have truly informed consent by knowing what the risks to taking FDA-approved drugs are,” says the letter. “Unfortunately, the latest data strongly suggests that hundreds of thousands of women have been harmed by mifepristone while believing that it is ‘safer than Tylenol.’”
Dr. Christina Francis, AAPLOG CEO and board-certified OB-GYN, states,
The FDA’s previous deregulation of mifepristone opened the door to mail-order abortion, which subjects pregnant women to an unacceptably low standard of care, leaving them vulnerable to life-threatening complications, and empowers abusers and traffickers who wish to force unwanted abortions on their victims. Our doctors have seen the devastating impact this recklessness has had on patients, which makes clear the dire need for the FDA to reprioritize women and girls by reexamining the drug’s safety and reinstating basic safeguards that should never have been lifted.
Rebecca Weaver, AAPLOG’s Director of Advocacy and Policy, adds,
The wild west environment created by the deregulation of mifepristone undermines pro-life states’ ability to enforce their own abortion laws and protect pregnant women and preborn babies within their borders. With the promising statements that Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary of the Food & Drug Administration have made regarding the possibility of further examining the drug’s safety, we hope that this letter offers further encouragement that making sound healthcare policy means prioritizing women’s health over the interests of the abortion industry.
You can read an exclusive report on this letter by Fox News here. You can also watch a conversation between Dr. Christina Francis and Rebecca Weaver, about this letter and other recent policy updates here via our podcast.
