Josh Hawley says FDA turned 'every mailbox into a Planned Parenthood'
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has called for a national ban on the abortion drug mifepristone, continuing to put pressure on the Trump administration to finish its long-anticipated review of the drug.
Hawley and his wife, Erin, who works for the prominent legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, spoke at the Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand Summit last week at Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia.
The senator said it's “vital” for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to complete a “safety study” on mifepristone and for Congress to pass a ban on the drug. Pro-life advocates have criticized the Trump administration this year amid a report that the long-anticipated safety review of the abortion drug has been delayed until after the 2026 midterms.
“The abortion drug is not safe,” Hawley said. “It’s not safe for the baby, who it kills almost every single time, and it’s not safe for the mother, because in more than one in 10 cases, the mother who takes that pill is sent to an emergency room with a life-threatening condition.”
“And the pharmaceutical companies who make that drug, they lie about it because they make money on more abortions. The more abortions there are, the more money they make.”
Hawley introduced the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act in March, which seeks to revoke the FDA approval for the abortion medication mifepristone.
The abortion rate in the U.S. has risen since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ruling that there is no constitutional right to abortion and allowing state bans against the procedure to go into effect.
Abortion opponents have attributed the rising abortion rate despite the enactment of abortion bans in several states to the increased prevalence of and access to abortion pills. During the Biden administration, the FDA relaxed regulations on mifepristone by eliminating the in-person physician dispensing requirement and allowing the drug to be distributed through the mail. Such regulation has enabled foreign drug shipping networks to mail abortion pills into states that outlaw abortion.
“If you are pro-life, you cannot be for the abortion drug,” Hawley continued. “It is turning every mailbox in America into a Planned Parenthood. We cannot allow this to go on. We need to ban it.”
Hawley said “there are no safety restrictions on” the abortion drug because of the Biden administration policies that President Donald Trump has not yet repealed.
“The only way to make the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe […] real is to ban the abortion drug in the United States of America,” he added, drawing applause from the audience.
Mifepristone, also called RU-486, blocks the effects of progesterone, a hormone needed to sustain a pregnancy. Without it, the uterus can no longer support the pregnancy, and the unborn baby dies.
In June 2025, then-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary promised Hawley in a letter that he would fully review mifepristone.
“As the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, I am committed to conducting a review of mifepristone and working with the professional career scientists at the Agency who review this data,” Makary wrote.
“As with all drugs, the FDA continues to closely monitor the postmarketing safety data on mifepristone for the medical termination of early pregnancy.”
Some pro-life activists have argued that the FDA is stalling its review, despite additional promises from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Last week, 50 pro-life leaders released a joint statement calling on FDA Commissioner-nominee Dr. Heidi Overton to restore earlier safeguards on mifepristone.
“Overton’s confirmation hearing provides an important opportunity for her to make clear what she plans to do about the FDA’s extremely permissive policy governing mifepristone,” they wrote. “There are good reasons the FDA policy should not be this permissive.”
