Today U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) and Senator James Lankford (OK), joined by 73 of their colleagues, sent a bicameral letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expressing concern and requesting information about the agency’s recent decision to change its policies regarding the abortion drug mifepristone.

    The letter says in part -

    “We are deeply disappointed to learn that you have loosened FDA standards governing use of the abortion drug mifepristone, also referred to as Mifeprex or RU-486.  This powerful abortion drug has been associated with serious adverse events including hemorrhaging, severe infections and even deaths of mothers who have taken it.”

    In the letter the lawmakers seek additional information in light of the controversial origins of the original approval of mifepristone in the United States. At the beginning of the Clinton administration, Clinton issued an executive order instructing the FDA to re-evaluate the status of RU-486. Then-FDA Commissioner Kessler even urged the European patent-holder, Roussel Uclaf, to submit an application for approval of what was then called RU-486. When mainstream drug manufacturers refused to bring this baby-killing drug to the United States, the Population Council licensed the drug and abortion proponents created a corporation, DANCO, for one purpose and one purpose only: to distribute mifepristone in the United States. Headquartered in the Cayman Islands, DANCO had the abortion drug manufactured in China and packaged in New Jersey.

     The complete letter and questions to the agency can be viewed here.

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