FDA Head To ‘Listen To Concerns’ Regarding Coerced Use Of Abortion Pill Widely Available Online

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary said in an interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns that the FDA will “look at the data” surrounding the abortion drug, mifepristone, including concerns” that pregnant women are suffering coercion to take the pill “outside the prescribing authority of a physician.”

The commissioner told Burns that the FDA is conducting “an ongoing review of safety data on mifepristone,” which he noted “is a requirement from the prior administrations,” in a video clip of the interview released Friday. Makary also said that the FDA is looking into circumstances where women taking this abortion pill are influenced by “an abusive, power imbalance from the male in the relationship.”

In the interview, set to release in full on Sunday’s episode of Politico’s “The Conversation,” Makary said that were the data to show any “new drug-drug interaction with mifepristone,” the FDA “would have to take action on it.”

“You always have to be open-minded,” Makary added. “You have to listen to different opinions and, you know, make decisions based on what you think is the right thing to do.”

He stated that the FDA must “listen to what’s happening in the field, and ask, you know, what can we do to do our part?”

However, the commissioner also said that he has “no preconceived plans to make any changes to the mifepristone policies,” specifically related to “telehealth and mail.”

Burns, at the beginning of the video clip, specifically acknowledged that Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley has been placing pressure on the FDA to “limit access to mifepristone via telehealth and via mail.”

“I don’t feel I’m under pressure from anybody,” Makary told Burns after she had mentioned the senator’s name. “Now, people have opinions.”

Hawley