Democrats, as part of President Biden’s aggressive plan to promote and fund abortion, are demanding the Food and Drug Administration cancel its safety rules for a dangerous abortion drug.
National Review reported Democrats on the House Oversight Committee notified the FDA of its demand that the agency “remove safety protocols for mifepristone.”
That’s a chemical often prescribed by abortionists during the first three months of a pregnancy to destroy the unborn child.
Last week, the report said, the House Democrats asked FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock to eliminate the safety requirements “immediately.”
The rules require a woman to pick up the prescription in person rather than having it delivered.
The in-person safety rule is meant to protect women who may have life-threatening reactions to the drug, ensuring immediate care is available.
The requirement actually was dropped last year during COVID-19 pandemic. The move was opposed by the American Center for Law & Justice, which said, “While doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals are exhausting medical resources, and themselves, to battle the coronavirus pandemic, Planned Parenthood and the radical pro-abortion Left are using COVID-19 as an excuse to expand abortion, any way they can.”
The FDA had put the drug under its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program because of “serious safety concerns.”
Led by then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a group of AGs asked for exemptions from the safety requirements, which were granted.
They claimed: “We need to ensure that women across the country have access to critical healthcare services. Steps have already been taken in many states at the behest of the federal government to increase telehealth. Yet, the current FDA REMS create unnecessary barriers between women and abortion care, not only making it hard to find – for example, by prohibiting sale by retail or mail-order pharmacies – but also making it unappealing to prescribe.”
The ACLJ said at the time: “This is not the first time the abortion lobby has attempted to weaponize the coronavirus to expand abortion access across the country. We told you we filed emergency amicus briefs after Planned Parenthood sued officials from the state of Texas for the state’s emergency order to cease all non-essential surgeries, including elective abortions, to reduce the strain on personal protective equipment and hospital beds. Apparently Planned Parenthood values abortion over assisting medical personnel working to save COVID-19 patients at this time of unprecedented sickness and death.”
However, last month the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that the FDA could reinstate its safety standard.
In its first ruling on abortion since Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court, the court said, “The question is … whether the district court properly ordered the Food and Drug Administration to lift those established requirements because of the court’s own evaluation of the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic.”
It continued: “Here as in related contexts concerning government responses to the pandemic, my view is that courts owe significant deference to the politically accountable entities with the ‘background, competence, and expertise to assess public health.’ In light of those considerations, I do not see a sufficient basis here for the district court to compel the FDA to alter the regimen for medical abortion.”
In their letter to the FDA, the Democrat women claim “imposing this requirement in the midst of a deadly pandemic — one that has disproportionately impacted communities of color across the United States — needlessly places patients and providers in harm’s way, and further entrenches longstanding health inequities.”
National Review said: “The debate is especially interesting because data suggest that an increase in the rate of chemical abortion is a central reason for the recent increase in the overall U.S. abortion rate. As Michael New recently pointed out on National Review Online, the number of chemical abortions women have obtained has risen consistently since the FDA first approved mifepristone for abortions in 2000.
“Between 2015 and 2018, the percentage of total abortions that were chemical abortions increased from 25 percent to 40 percent,” New said. “Among the 42 states that reported data on type of procedure in both 2017 and 2018, the number of chemical abortions increased by more than 10 percent.”
One study found 7% of women who taken the drug “will require” a followup surgical abortion. A second study found more than 3% of the women using the drug required emergency-room help with their complications.
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