The Trump administration has quietly approved a new generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone, a move announced by the Food and Drug Administration this week that has drawn sharp criticism from anti-abortion leaders.The decision comes less than two weeks after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary confirmed a review of abortion pill safety, a review initially welcomed by anti-abortion activists. Now, those same leaders are questioning the administration’s commitment to their cause, marking one of the first notable pushbacks Trump has faced from his usually loyal socially conservative base.Trump Administration Quietly Approves Generic Mifepristone, Sparking BacklashFederal regulators have approved a new generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone, a routine regulatory step that immediately drew criticism from anti-abortion groups and politicians aligned with the Trump administration.The approval was announced by Evita Solutions, the drugmaker, on its website. The company’s low-cost version of mifepristone is approved for ending pregnancies up to 10 weeks gestation. Students for Life Action, an anti-abortion organization, responded to the news calling the move “a stain on the Trump presidency” and describing it as further evidence that the “deep state at the FDA must go.”The decision shows the ongoing tension between expanding access to abortion medication and opposition from socially conservative groups who remain critical of regulatory agencies’ role in approving such drugs.What Is Mifepristone?According to the FDA, mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, which is essential for a pregnancy to continue. Used in combination with misoprostol, it can safely end an intrauterine pregnancy up to ten weeks gestation (70 days or less since the first day of the last menstrual period).The approved dosing schedule is:Day 1: 200 mg of mifepristone taken orally24–48 hours later: 800 mcg of misoprostol taken buccally (in the cheek) at an appropriate location7–14 days later: follow-up with a healthcare providerMifepristone: Who Will Make It?The generic version will be produced by Evita Solutions LLC, a company that says its mission is to “normalize abortion” and make it “accessible to all.” The FDA confirmed the approval, stating that the submitted application contained sufficient data to meet federal standards.Mifepristone: Safety and ControversyDecades of peer-reviewed studies show that serious adverse reactions to mifepristone occur in fewer than 0.5 percent of patients, and the drug has been FDA-approved and widely used for over 20 years.Despite this, earlier this year, a report by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a right-wing think tank, questioned the safety of the pill, claiming serious complications were 22 times higher than previous estimates and urging the FDA to reconsider its approval.This latest approval underscores the ongoing tensions in U.S. abortion politics, as the Trump administration’s decision to quietly greenlight generic mifepristone clashes with the expectations of socially conservative supporters.
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