91 GOP Elected Officials, Led By Ted Cruz, Want to Ban Controversial Abortion Pill

Texas Senator Ted Cruz and 19 Republican colleagues in the Senate, along with 71 House Republicans, are requesting that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibit the use of Mifeprex, mostly known as RU-486, to terminate pregnancies within 10 weeks after conception.

“It is by now nakedly obvious that the abortion industry and its allies in the media, billionaire philanthropic circles, and special interest groups have wanted an unregulated and de-medicalized abortion pill since the moment the FDA first approved it in 2000,” Cruz and the other elected officials stated in a letter directed to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on September 1, 2020.

According to a report from the Epoch Times, “The Mifeprex abortion pill has been used to terminate the lives of an estimated 3.7 million unborn babies, caused 24 maternal deaths, and resulted in more than 4,100 adverse reactions in users, including bleeding, extreme abdominal pain, and life-threatening infections, according to the signers.”

“Of course, adverse events are notoriously underreported, which makes the true number impossible to assess. Moreover, as of 2016, abortion pill manufacturers are only required to report maternal deaths,” the signers said to Hahn.

“However, most women experiencing adverse reactions (such as hemorrhaging) are more likely to seek emergency care at hospitals and emergency rooms, rather than returning to the abortion facility where the pill was prescribed.”

In addition, the signers urged Hahn to use the FDA’s current power to declare Mifeprex “an imminent hazard to public health” that presents “a significant threat of danger.”

Epoch Times highlighted the elected officials who signed on to the letter:

Senators joining Cruz in signing the letter include Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Joni K. Ernst (R-Iowa), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), Roger F. Wicker (R-Miss.), Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyo.), M. Michael Rounds (R-S.D.), Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), James E. Risch (R-Idaho), and John Hoeven (R-N.D.).

For the House, Georgia congressman Jody Hice passed around the draft letter and was able to gather 70 signatures from Republican colleagues.

Mallory Quigley, the Vice President of the Susan B. Anthony List (SBAL), told The Epoch Times on September 2 that “chemical abortion drugs are dangerous and put women at serious risk of heavy bleeding, infection, and even death.”

Furthermore, Quigley asserted that her pro-life organization believes Democratic officials who advocate for the expansion of “chemical abortion during this uncertain time for the health and safety of our nation … repeatedly put the profits of the abortion industry over the protection of women and their children.”

In the pro-life letter, the signers additionally called on Hahn to carry out “a serious examination of the ethical practices and FDA compliance of clinical trials like the TelAbortion project conducted by Gynuity, a research group associated with abortion giant Planned Parenthood.”

It also noted the following:

Gynuity’s direct-to-consumer abortion pill-by-mail experiment has been going on for nearly five years and has now expanded to 13 states. In addition to placing the lives of American women and children at risk by offering their clinical study to girls as young as 10 years old, they use women in Burkina Faso in their second trimester as research subjects, despite the high risk of infection and uterine rupture.

Cruz is a leading pro-life voice in the Senate. He is a sponsor of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which President Donald Trump is in favor of.

Although pro-life issues are not as high profile these days, the America First grassroots still hold them in high esteem. The right to life is a fundamental American freedom and President Trump should do everything he can to open up a robust national discussion on the issue.

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