Washington, D.C. – In response to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s congressional testimony that he has directed the FDA to review the label and the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for mifepristone, Democracy Forward President & CEO Skye Perryman issued the following statement:
“The safety and efficacy of Mifepristone is well established. Disinformation attempts to mislead the public on the safety and efficacy of mifepristone are also not new. It is alarming to see the Secretary respond to political pressure and suggest that science and evidence will be evaluated at the White House, as opposed to by career experts who have studied and evaluated mifepristone for decades.
“The report cited by members of Congress is an anti-abortion funded effort with significant flaws in methodology and findings. We will continue to encourage the federal government to heed medically accurate, peer reviewed, and evidence based approaches to medication regulation and to support the expertise of a non-partisan career civil service as opposed to governing through political ideology. Rolling back updates to the Mifepristone REMS program – changes made less than three years ago to reduce unnecessary burdens on the health care system – will harm patients, overburden providers, and delay essential care.
“Democracy Forward remains steadfast in our commitment to defending access to reproductive health care, including reducing barriers to accessing medication abortion. We will pursue every legal avenue available to ensure evidence-based medical care is protected from politically motivated interference.”
Democracy Forward represents GenBioPro, the manufacturer of generic mifepristone, in Missouri et al. v. FDA (formerly known as Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA). Democracy Forward also represents GenBioPro in GenBioPro v. Raynes, a challenge to West Virginia’s near-total abortion ban currently pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
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Democracy Forward is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.