Remember in June when Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline pretended to be concerned about the supposed risks to water quality of the abortion drug mifepristone?
Now Cline had joined 11 of his pro-forced-birth Republican colleagues in a letter to Health and Human Serivices Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. protesting the FDA’s approval of a generic version of mifepristone.
The approval of a generic version of this dangerous drug not only contradicts the announced review but also runs directly counter to this Administration’s stated pro-life agenda. It is clear that rogue actors within the FDA are working to undermine both the sanctity of life and the Administration’s commitment to protecting it. For this reason, we respectfully urge that you consider the director of the Office of Generic Drugs, the director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and other bureaucrats responsible for this reckless decision as part of your reduction-in-force evaluations.
In other words, they want Kennedy to fire anyone who had anything to do with the approval.
But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in one of her lucid moments, defended the decision.
“It’s not an endorsement of this drug by any means. They are just simply following the law,” Leavitt told reporters. “By law, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services must approve a generic drug application if the application demonstrates the drug is the ‘same’ as the brand-name drug.”
Mifepristone is one of the two medications used in most U.S. abortions. Manufacturer Evita Solutions first applied for approval in 2021, according to FDA’s approval letter, and it was granted earlier this week.
The FDA wrote that the company’s mifepristone tablets were “therapeutically equivalent” to the brand-name version, Mifeprex, which has been available in the U.S. since 2000.
As for the letter’s claim that mifepristone is a “dangerous drug,” the FDA’s website (still) states:
Mifepristone is safe when used as indicated and directed and consistent with the Mifepristone Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) Program. The FDA approved Mifeprex more than 20 years ago based on a thorough and comprehensive review of the scientific evidence presented and determined that it was safe and effective for its indicated use.
The real concern of Cline and the other Republicans is that wider availability of mifepristone will allow more women to make their own reproductive decisions. And it seems this is something they just can’t accept.
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