'I've asked Marty Makary, who's the director of the FDA, to do a complete review and to report back,' Kennedy said before a Senate committee Wednesday.
(LifeSiteNews) -- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday that he is going to study the dangers of the chemical abortion pill known as mifepristone.
“I’ve asked Marty Makary, who’s the director of the FDA, to do a complete review and to report back,” Kennedy told pro-life Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.
Kennedy has been on Capitol Hill testifying to lawmakers this week about the reforms he has been implementing. During one heated exchange with ultra-liberal 82-year-old Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro, he denounced her attacks as well as the previous failures of the institutions he now oversees.
“If anybody thinks that we did gold standard medicine in this country from these institutions, look at our children! They're the sickest children in the world!” he exclaimed.
During his questioning, Sen. Hawley asked if Kennedy was aware of the Ethics and Public Policy’s recent study that showed nearly 11 percent of women in the U.S. who take mifepristone suffer serious adverse events, a rate 22 times higher than what is reported on the drug label. The researchers concluded that mifepristone is neither safe nor effective.
“It’s alarming,” Kennedy replied. It “validates” previous studies and “at the very least, the label should be changed.”
Hawley discussed the study with James O’Neill as well. O’Neill is President Trump’s pick for Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. He, too, told the committee last week that he supports looking into the dangers associated with chemical abortion pills.
"Mifepristone actually has a REMS (risk evaluation and mitigation strategy), meaning it has been designated for a long time as something that needs periodic review of safety data,” he said.
“The secretary has pledged to do a safety review of mifepristone … and I strongly support that review.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews journalist Emily Mangiaracina, prevalence of chemical abortions in the U.S. has rapidly increased since 2000, when the abortion pill was first approved for use by the FDA, especially as the government has rolled back abortion pill regulations.
In 2011, the drug was placed under a safety system known as REMS, after serious adverse events – including multiple deaths – were reported. REMS allows the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to monitor these adverse events. But under the Obama FDA in 2016, requirements to report all abortion pill complications were removed. Going forward, only deaths were to be reported, significantly hampering safety data.
By December 2021, the Biden FDA axed the requirement that the abortion pill be dispensed in person and allowed them to be permanently shipped by mail.
But in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in February, Kennedy confirmed that Trump asked him to study the dangers of abortifacient drugs.
“During the Biden administration, the NIH did something that was inexcusable, which is to tell doctors and patients not to report injuries, and that’s not a good policy,” he said.
While being questioned during his Senate confirmation hearing weeks earlier, Kennedy insisted that “every abortion is a tragedy” when pressed on his abortion stance.
