From ABC News: The Senate’s health committee convened its first hearing of the year on the efficacy of the chemical abortion drug mifepristone, which requires a prescription, amid a growing push from conservatives to restrict abortion access across the country.
Mifepristone is an oral drug typically used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, to induce an abortion or to help manage an early miscarriage. In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration approved a generic version of the drug.
The two-hour committee hearing on Wednesday centered around measures to outlaw telehealth practices for women seeking abortions. Republican lawmakers on the committee decried the use of the drug as Democrats accused them of attempting to control women’s bodies.
“My goal of the hearing is to inform people that this is not just taking Tylenol,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said.
“It’s more than that, and therefore to emphasize that there should be an in-patient visit and some human contact,” he added.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says Mifepristone is “a safe, effective, and necessary medication that has been used by millions of patients over the course of more than two decades and should remain available nationwide without medically unnecessary and burdensome restrictions.”
Mifepristone blocks progesterone, causing the uterine lining to break down. Misoprostol, taken later, causes uterine contractions to expel the embryo.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill testified that former President Joe Biden’s efforts to expand the abortion pills was dangerous and illegal.
“After Dobbs [Supreme Court decision], the Biden FDA promptly announced that it would remove the in-person dispensing requirement for abortion pills,” Murrill said, adding, “Thereby authorizing mifepristone to be shipped nationwide by mail. This was not a medically informed decision, but a purely political one; it was not even a legal one, because federal law prohibits distribution by mail.”
‘Why Is It Taking So Long’? Senate Health Chair Urges Immediate FDA Action on Abortion Pill
The Food and Drug Administration should “immediately” restore in-person dispensing requirements for the abortion pill, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told @TheElizMitchell.
The senator… pic.twitter.com/F54LzanmJi
— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) January 14, 2026
‘If the Data Exists, Why the Delay?’: Sen. Bill Cassidy Demands Answers on Abortion Pill Safety@SenBillCassidy is “one of the leading members of Congress who has been calling” on FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to conduct a “thorough safety review on the abortion pill.”
If the… pic.twitter.com/4BQZbgfGqk
— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) January 14, 2026
Read more at ABC News
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