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The Trump Administration is considering imposing new restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone

The drug was approved by the FDA in 2000 for abortions up to seven weeks of pregnancy.

HHS headquarters in Washington, DC.

HHS headquarters in Washington, DC.AFP.

Published by
Luis Francisco Orozco

The administration of President Donald Trump confirmed to Republican state attorneys general that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is currently reviewing any and all safety protocols for the abortion pill mifepristone. In a letter sent earlier this month but made public Wednesday, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explained that the agency is seriously considering modifying the requirements of the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Strategy.

In their letter, both Makary and Kennedy Jr. detailed that lthe review was motivated by "recent studies raising concerns about the safety of mifepristone as currently administered." However, both noted that HHS was also conducting "its own review" of the abortion pill.

While the letter does not clarify whether Makary and Kennedy Jr. would go so far as to suggest that such a drug would have to be taken off the market as posing a risk to patient health, both cited different findings from a study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) think tank as one of the main reasons for scrutinizing the numerous changes that came to be introduced by the Democratic administration of former President Joe Biden.

The two Trump administration health leaders wrote in their letter that "safeguards for women regarding the administration" of mifepristone have been "significantly reduced."

Pro-life pressure

The notification to states across the country comes at a time when HHS is facing strong pressure from lawmakers and pro-life activists to ban access to mifepristone, which was approved by the FDA in 2000 for abortions up to seven weeks of pregnancy.

However, that agency made a series of changes between 2016 and 2021, which included increasing the gestational age at which patients can use the pill to 10 weeks of pregnancy, approving telemedicine prescribing, allowing the drug to be sent by mail and authorizing providers other than physicians to prescribe it.

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