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 introduced legislation in May, “to reinstate safety regulations” against mifepristone. Hawley sent a letter to Makary in April, highlighting research showing multiple severe negative side effects of the abortion drug.
The senator doubled down on Tuesday, with a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling for the secretary to “reverse changes to the mifepristone Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) made during Democrat presidential administrations that weakened protections for women.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation recently tested mail-order restrictions on mifepristone abortion pills by ordering the drug from various companies. The organization was not required to speak to a doctor to prove eligibility on any occasion.
A recent lawsuit against Planned Parenthood from Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey alleges that the company has tried to boost revenue by making “brazenly false” claims about the safety of the abortion pill, while a study from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) released in April showed that 1 in 10 women experience a “serious adverse event” after taking the abortion pill.
The FDA has rejected and restricted a number of experimental drugs in recent days, limiting knock-off weight loss drugs in May and going as far as to ignite a standoff with Sarepta over experimental gene therapy treatment Elevidys. Makary on Wednesday decried the dangers of fluoride in drinking water, while the FDA backtracked on recommendations for a yearly COVID shot in May, suggesting a renewed emphasis on drug safety at the FDA.
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