As I wrote earlier this year, the FDA should follow its own precedent and remove the remaining restrictions on mifepristone.

In our Care Post-Roe Study, we found that abortion bans are leading to delays and denial of care for pregnant people, which in turn leads to worse health outcomes, emotional distress, and increased costs.

Rather than place more limits on medication abortion, we should follow the scientific evidence, which points in a completely different direction. We need to look at how removing remaining restrictions on mifepristone would improve health outcomes.

Public health and medical leaders, policymakers, and elected officials should urge the FDA to follow the science. Any future regulatory decisions must be evidence-based. For mifepristone, that means affirming the clear scientific consensus on the drug’s safety.

In the last Trump administration, the FDA approved my studies exploring the potential for providing mifepristone through pharmacies and by mail. This research helped inform the agency’s 2021 decision to remove some of the medication’s restrictions.

Why would the nation's public health leaders want to investigate a medication with a track record that other medications would envy? This is a political attempt to dupe the public.

As a researcher and OB/GYN, let me tell you, this is not business as usual for the FDA.

Mifepristone has a well-documented safety record, demonstrated through real-world use and in over 100 peer-reviewed research publications. Since it was approved by the FDA in 2000, it has been used by more than 7.5 million people in the U.S. to safely end early pregnancies.