Upholding the Hippocratic oath: Doctors press White House to review abortion pill safety
A group of pro-life doctors are calling on the Trump administration to promptly review the safety of the abortion pill.
“As physicians who uphold the Hippocratic oath to do no harm, we oppose any delay in a much-needed safety review of mifepristone that prioritizes political expediency over patient safety,” five doctors told the Trump administration in a letter Thursday.
The four-page letter, addressed specially to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin A. Makary and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calls on the administration to immediately take action to safeguard women from the alleged risks of the abortion pill known as mifepristone.
The process of a chemical abortion begins when a woman takes mifepristone, which blocks the baby in the womb from receiving the hormone progesterone. Without progesterone, the lining of the uterus deteriorates, ultimately resulting in the unborn child’s death.
After 22 state attorneys general asked the Food and Drug Administration to review the safety of the abortion pill last year, the Department of Health and Human Services announced in September plans to “review of the evidence, including real-world outcomes and evidence, relating to the safety and efficacy of the drug.”
Despite the pledge, the review has not yet been conducted. The doctors requested “an urgent, thorough review of mifepristone’s safety.”
The five doctors said they were “deeply concerned” about the delay, in the letter to Makary and Kennedy.
“We were promised a thorough review, but instead the medical community has received empty words and delayed actions,” the doctors added.
The five doctors are leaders of life-affirming medical groups that claim to represent “tens of thousands of pro-life obstetricians/gynecologists, pediatricians, family physicians, and other medical professionals.”
They include Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs; Michelle K. Stanford, president of the Catholic Medical Association; and Donna Harrison, MD
board chair of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine; Mike Chupp, MD, CEO of the Christian Medical and Dental Association; and Mike Artigues, MD, president of the American College of Pediatricians.
In 2000, the Clinton administration approved the use of mifepristone to terminate a pregnancy, but also subjected the drug to its safeguards for higher-risk medications. The Obama and Biden administrations subsequently removed some safeguards.
In 2016, the FDA authorized its use for up to 10 weeks after a woman’s last period, an extension from the previous seven-week limit. Under the Biden administration, the FDA permanently removed the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.
The doctors are asking that the previous safety requirements for the pill be reinstated. They also requested an ultrasound requirement for all women seeking chemical abortions, to confirm the age of the baby and ensure the woman is not experiencing an ectopic pregnancy.
Over 10% of the women who have taken the abortion pill “experienced severe complications, including infection, hemorrhage, surgical intervention, or undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy,” according to the doctors, citing a report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
“This rate is consistent with what our clinicians observe and suggests the true risk may be 22 times higher than previously disclosed,” they added.
In December, Makary told The Daily Signal’s Elizabeth Mitchell the review of the abortion drug mifepristone is in the “data acquisition phase” following a report saying he is delaying the review.
“We do an ongoing review, but we’re also engaging in a robust study that can serve to validate or not validate other numbers that have been put out there in the literature,” Makary said.
Now, the authors of the letter to Makary and Kennedy are asking for immediate action, saying that Makary’s “ongoing review” wouldn’t turn up any “new complications” since the FDA “stopped collecting data on mifepristone complications in 2016.”
“Additionally,” the doctors continue, “if ongoing safety evaluations have been occurring, where are the results of those evaluations, and what data is the FDA relying on?”
Information from the evaluations would be “indispensable for providing fully informed consent to our patients,” they noted.
“It’s time for this administration to fulfill its commitment to women and the medical community and address this public health crisis with the seriousness and urgency it requires,” the doctors tell Kennedy and Makary. “We stand ready to provide expert input and data from our members to support this process.”
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]