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Ted Cruz and 19 other GOP Senators ask FDA to remove Danco’s abortion drug Mifeprex from the market

pharmafile | September 3, 2020 | News story | Manufacturing and Production Mifeprex, abortion 

Texas Senator Ted Cruz and 19 other senators have sent a letter to the FDA urging them to take the abortion pill Mifeprex off the market.

The letter stated: “It is by now nakedly obvious that the abortion industry and its allies in the media, billionaire philanthropic circles, and special interest groups, have wanted an unregulated and demedicalised abortion pill since the moment the FDA first approved it in 2000.” It goes on to say the pill has “taken” more than 3.7 million pre-born lives, echoing popular right-wing pro-life narratives.

In the House, Representative Jody Hice led more than 70 congressmen in sending a similar letter to the FDA.

This letter follows action by the Trump administration in May which limited the access to abortion pills during the coronavirus pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control recommended that doctors use telemedicine as much as possible during the pandemic and that patients got their medicine through deliveries. It loosened some restrictions on certain drugs that previously could not be delivered, but still maintained that patients who are seeking to induce an aboriton must physically pick up Mifeprex, despite it being a self-administered treatment. Patients who use the drug for other ailments could get it delivered.

This led to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused the FDA of singling out women who needed the treatment.

According to a 2018 study from the National Institutes of Health, medically-induced abortion which is used to end pregnancies before 10 weeks is very safe; 39% of US abortions are carried out with Mifeprex.

Mifeprex was first approved in 2000, and the FDA looked at a supplemental application from Danco in 2016, and reaffirmed that the drug was safe and effective.

Conor Kavanagh

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