The anti-abortion movement’s patience with the Food and Drug Administration is reportedly now wearing thin. After pledging to conduct a full review of mifepristone’s safety, the agency instead approved another generic version of the abortion pill — a move that conservatives say undermines the administration’s commitment to protecting life.
President Trump campaigned on leaving abortion policy to the states. But many anti-abortion advocates and lawmakers argue that stance is not enough when the FDA continues to greenlight wider access to mifepristone. For them, the latest approval represents a betrayal.
“FDA had promised to do a top-to-bottom safety review of the chemical abortion drug, but instead they’ve just greenlighted new versions of it for distribution. I have lost confidence in the leadership at FDA,” Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri wrote on social platform X.
In September, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary had assured GOP attorneys general that “this Administration will ensure that women’s health is properly protected by thoroughly investigating the circumstances under which mifepristone can be safely dispensed.” That promise, many conservatives say, has now been broken.
The FDA’s move allows Evita Solutions to become the third company in the United States authorized to manufacture and sell the drug. Hawley immediately demanded answers, sending a letter to Commissioner Makary pressing him to explain his role. “This decision appears to ignore the science while advancing a highly questionable ideological agenda,” Hawley wrote, warning that the approval could make any future safety reforms “toothless and irrelevant.”
In the House, conservatives echoed those concerns and called for accountability. A group led by Representative Mark Harris of North Carolina urged Secretary Kennedy to consider dismissing FDA officials who “undermine both the sanctity of life and the Administration’s commitment to protecting it.”
“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,” their letter read.
Administration officials defended the approval as a legal necessity. “It’s not an endorsement of this drug by any means. They are just simply following the law,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday, noting that by statute, the FDA must approve a generic drug if it matches the brand-name version.
Still, anti-abortion leaders insist the administration must act more decisively. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America issued a statement warning that “every day this right is being trampled upon by the abortion industry.” Kelsey Pritchard of the group said, “We need FDA to change course. Quickly. … This is not MAGA, this is not MAHA. It doesn’t make America healthy again.”
Kristi Hamrick, of Students for Life of America, said her group is demanding more than vague promises. “We are looking for concrete discussions and signs that on this issue, the work is getting done,” she said, urging the FDA to pull back mifepristone’s approval.
A coalition of advocates, lawmakers, physicians, and religious leaders joined in that call Friday, writing that the approval “directly contradicts Secretary Kennedy’s recent public assurances that the safety of abortion drugs was in question and would receive thorough review.”
For conservatives, the issue is not only about science but about life. As Pritchard put it: “The safety review should be a priority, but the administration needs to roll back the loosened prescribing requirements without it.”
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