EXCLUSIVE: Senate To Zero In On ‘Exposing The Dangers’ Of The Abortion Pill

The Senate is set to hold a hearing next week on the dangers of the abortion pill, as pro-life groups urge the Trump administration to roll back Biden-era rules allowing the drug to be shipped through the mail, The Daily Wire has learned. 

The hearing will be led by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Cassidy has pushed for the Trump administration to end the mail-order abortion policies and release a safety study on the effects of mifepristone, the active drug used in medication abortions. 

“As a doctor and a strong pro-life conservative, I am committed to protecting mothers and the unborn. The medical evidence is clear: chemical abortion drugs not only kill innocent babies, but also put women in serious danger,” Cassidy told The Daily Wire. “As Chairman of the HELP Committee, I look forward to discussing how to uphold a culture of life and prioritize women‘s safety over political ideology.”

The hearing, titled “Protecting Women: Exposing the Dangers of Chemical Abortion Drugs,” will take place at 10:00 am in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. 

Medication abortions, now the most common abortion method, involve the use of two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. After a pregnant woman takes mifepristone, the unborn child is cut off from the vital nutrients it needs to survive and is effectively starved to death. Misoprostol is then used to induce labor and expel the deceased baby from the mother.

The hearing comes as Cassidy has pushed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for answers after it approved another generic form of mifepristone in September, much to the surprise of pro-life advocates, and left in place rules allowing abortion pills to be mailed. In response, more than 51 senators asked for the FDA to reverse course and reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement. 

Earlier this year, Cassidy and 16 other GOP senators wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in October asking if the agency was conducting a study into the dangers of the abortion pill and whether it was aware of cases in which women had been coerced into taking the drugs or given them without their knowledge. 

In one recent incident, an Ohio surgeon was charged after allegedly forcing his girlfriend to take an illegally obtained abortion pill, resulting in the death of her unborn child.

“The in-person dispensing requirement also helped guard women from being coerced into having chemical abortions against their will,” the senators wrote.

During his confirmation hearing, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would conduct a study into the abortion pill. That study has yet to be released, and some pro-life groups have accused the FDA of slow-walking it for political reasons. 

Data has shown that allowing abortion pills to be shipped by mail has resulted in tens of thousands of abortions in states like Texas and Tennessee, where medication abortions are technically illegal. This largely happens under “shield laws” in states like New York, which bar prosecution of those who ship abortion pills into states with abortion bans.