The FDA’s Broken Promises And The Real Cost Of Mail-Order Abortions

As the abortion drug mifepristone continues to take more U.S. lives than fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin combined, a court-ordered update on the Food & Drug Administration’s long-awaited safety study shows the agency is in no apparent hurry to deliver the “gold standard science” every single one of its leaders has promised — with no action expected until at least March.

In five months’ time, an estimated 75,000 unborn babies in pro-life states alone will die from mail-order abortion drugs illegally shipped by activists doing brisk business in states like California and New York.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. first promised a safety study to the U.S. Senate on January 30, 2025. He was quickly confirmed and sworn in.

Nearly two years later, startling information has emerged. Two independent reviews of commercially available data, released in April 2025 by the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Restoration of America Foundation, found the risk of serious adverse events was much higher than previously reported — with as many as 1 in 10 women suffering complications like hemorrhage or sepsis. In May 2025, a peer-reviewed study by Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) analyzing nearly 29,000 emergency room visits found that the overwhelming majority of emergency room visits following a drug-induced abortion were being miscoded as natural miscarriages, with severe consequences. This hidden crisis is hard to comprehend.

In September of last year, Kennedy revealed that the Biden administration “twisted” the data on mifepristone to hide safety signals. A few weeks later, the FDA quietly approved a new generic form of the drug. This year, an investigation by the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee found the manufacturer of that drug, along with two others, could not say what — if anything — they are doing to follow the few remaining safety protocols, such as gestational age limits. Over 80% of U.S. online abortion drug sellers dangerously fail to comply with the FDA’s 10-week limit, CLI uncovered again. In North Carolina, a teenager was able to order abortion drugs online and take them well into the third trimester.

In June, CLI research showed many women feel blindsided by severe pain, bleeding, and other complications.

Now, scholars have delivered a thorough, peer-reviewed analysis of the shoddy science the FDA used to justify dropping the in-person dispensing requirement after eliminating reporting of most adverse events and failing to take real-world conditions into account.

Meanwhile, abusers all over the country are being empowered by the FDA’s inaction. In Texas, abortion drugs ended the life of an already much-loved baby girl named Presley Mae. In Washington state, an Army captain impregnated a junior enlisted soldier and secretly slipped her mifepristone to take care of his “problem.” And in Ohio, an ex-medical resident received just six months’ jail time plus probation for a horrifying middle-of-the-night assault on his then-girlfriend, Jona Affholder, sending her to the emergency room where she lost the child she had been determined to keep even if she had to do so alone.

Last month, SBA Pro-Life America accompanied several women who survived abortion drug harm to meet leaders on Capitol Hill. Their stories exemplify the distinct dangers of abortion drugs before and after Biden’s FDA got rid of in-person dispensing.

Elizabeth and Haile received abortion drugs in person. They both experienced traumatic effects. Elizabeth is haunted by the image of her perfectly formed tiny child, who, in her panic and distress, she flushed down the toilet. Both bled severely; Haile passed out and needed a blood transfusion. Haile is a former Democrat — a living testament to how the party of “trusting women” has utterly betrayed them.

Jessica and Jekyla obtained abortion drugs via web chat. When Jessica immediately regretted her decision, she turned to abortion pill reversal and saved her daughter. Unfortunately, many stories don’t end happily. Young mothers have died along with their babies (so much for just an extra-heavy period, as the abortion industry tells them to expect). Cruelly, when pro-abortion politicians acknowledge their deaths at all, they tout them as proof of the need for even less-regulated abortions.

The pro-life movement prefers no abortions, of course. But even those who disagree on the status of unborn children can see the mail-order abortion drug rule is atrocious. Fifty-seven percent of liberal voters are with us.

It’s bad enough that the Biden administration pioneered mail-order abortion. It should not have been tolerated under a Republican administration.

I have been asked about the ramifications for midterm elections. My organization continues working “full steam ahead” to reach 10.5 million voters overall and elect champions this fall. There is too much at stake, and too many good allies understand the abortion drug crisis and need our support, to hand majorities to radicals who will legalize taxpayer-funded abortion up to birth in every state. That said, there is a real risk to base voter enthusiasm if GOP leaders abandon the party’s commitment to protecting life.

Given the FDA’s failure, Attorney General Todd Blanche is best positioned to end this truly senseless, tragic chapter. He has repeatedly stated that the previous administration’s actions aren’t defensible and that his Department of Justice is working to make the Dobbs victory “permanent in every single state.”

Yet the DOJ still has an open court case in Louisiana. Now is the time to lay down arms against pro-life states and settle the case. The lives of both women and unborn children are in Blanche’s hands.

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Marjorie Dannenfelser is president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.