How shoddy science is fueling a charge to restrict abortion pill access

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has tasked the Food and Drug Administration with conducting a safety review of mifepristone, a pill used in most U.S. abortions. Kennedy said this week that the review was warranted due to an “alarming” new report on serious adverse events released last month.

“Clearly it indicates that, at very least, the label should be changed,” he told Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., at a Senate budget hearing on Wednesday. “I’ve asked Marty Makary, who’s the director of FDA, to do a complete review and to report back.”

The report in question, which was neither peer-reviewed nor published in a medical journal, claims to find a 22-times higher rate of serious complications from mifepristone than reported by the FDA. It calls on the agency to “further investigate the harm mifepristone causes to women” and “reconsider its approval altogether.”

It was released online in April by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank that says it promotes Judeo-Christian traditions. The center was on the advisory board of Project 2025, a right-wing policy initiative that appears to have informed many of President Donald Trump’s recent actions.

Days before the report came out, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said he had no plans to take action on mifepristone unless new data suggested there was a safety concern.