Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Rep. Diana Harshbarger, Pharm.D. (R-TN), and more than 170 Republican lawmakers, including the entirety of House GOP leadership, released a new letter to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary, MD, urging a robust FDA investigation and review of the safety standards and health risks associated with the popular chemical abortion pill, mifepristone.

                The November 20^th letter, co-signed by 175 Republican lawmakers, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, and Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa C. McClain, requests that Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary aggressively investigate the “deleterious and grossly underreported effects on women of the drug,” as well as immediately “reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.”

                The letter notes that President Trump “has done more to advance a culture of life and the protection of women and children from the violence of abortion than any president before him” and condemns the Biden-Harris administration’s “egregious action to remove critical safeguards that once applied to abortion drugs,” including ending the in-person dispensing rule for mifepristone and implementing a no-contact, mail-in abortion process, as well as “the FDA’s approval of a new abortion drug generic in September 2025.”

                Rep. Chris Smith, Co-Chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said: “The Biden-Harris administration’s blatant disregard for the innumerable health risks and complications caused by mifepristone—the baby poison pill—has been the status quo for far too long. The carelessness of Biden’s FDA has taken and harmed thousands of lives, the unborn and their mothers alike. Now that President Trump—the most pro-life president in U.S. history—has taken the executive helm, we are confident that his effective and life-affirming administration will work to undo the Biden-Harris administration’s dangerous and ill-conceived policies with reference to the increased accessibility and reduced medical oversight of chemical abortion drugs. I look forward to working with Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary to protect women and children from the violence of abortion by strengthening the safety standards of mifepristone and other chemical abortion pills.”

                Rep. Diana Harshbarger, Vice Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, said: “As a pharmacist, I’ve always believed women deserve the full truth when it comes to their health. Recent findings raise real questions about the safety of chemical abortion pills like mifepristone, and Americans deserve straight answers about the risks involved. No medication with known complications should be handed out without proper medical oversight and follow-up care. It’s time for Congress and federal regulators to take a hard look at the latest evidence and update our laws and regulations to reflect what we now know.”

                Citing shocking statistics from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), the authors of the letter report that “serious adverse events from mifepristone are approximately 22 times more frequent than the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently recognizes,” and that approximately “10.93 percent of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious or life-threatening adverse event” following a mifepristone abortion.

                Given the alarming volume of adverse reactions to the popular abortion drug, the Republican lawmakers argue that in addition to conducting a thorough investigation and extensive safety review into mifepristone and its concerning complications, the HHS and FDA must reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for the drug and end the option to request and receive abortion medications through the mail.

                “These [abortion] drugs are sent across state lines with no physician oversight, and without appropriate screening to ensure that bad actors are not secretly poisoning women without their knowledge or forcing women to take abortion drugs against their will—a clear indication that radical pro-abortion activists care more about protecting abortion access than about upholding women’s health and safety,” the lawmakers wrote.

                “Today, abortion drugs account for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States; there are over six hundred thousand abortions committed using these drugs each year. The Biden FDA’s reckless, no-contact, mail-order abortion scheme is to blame. Abortion providers are reaping increased profits, while women and their unborn children suffer irreparable harm.”

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