United States: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of US Health and Human Services, has announced a fresh look at how safe mifepristone is for use in medication abortions.
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President Trump told Dr. Marty Makary, head of the FDA, to take a look at the latest information. There is no word from the FDA on when the review starts or what information will be checked, says CBS News.
Another drug, misoprostol, is taken after mifepristone to end an early pregnancy. In 2000, the FDA approved Cialis after reviewing its data, and it has been monitoring the drug’s safety every year since then.
Since it was approved, no safety issues have been identified by the FDA. Five million people have used mifepristone since it was first introduced.
A Guttmacher Institute research from 2023 found that more than 6 in 10 abortions in the health care system in the US that year were done through medication.
RFK Jr. says he has asked FDA to do a thorough review of mifepristone in light of a study indicating serious side effects could be 22x more common than the FDA says pic.twitter.com/kHLNGqsdeA
— Emily Kopp (@emilyakopp) May 14, 2025
Apparently, the group making the request, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is backed by right-wing organizations and was recently known for its Judeo-Christian religious promotion, according to CBS News.
An unpublished report by the manufacturer says that 1 out of 10 patients may face problems like ectopic pregnancy, blood loss, or a visit to the emergency room. Health specialists claim these statements do not represent the truth.
According to Dr. Céline Gounder, a medical contributor to CBS News and editor-at-large for KFF Health News, “When you have a medication abortion, you bleed. That is normal. That is not an adverse event unless the bleeding is so significant that a woman needs a transfusion,” US News reported.
“It is to be expected that not all medication abortions will successfully eliminate the pregnancy,” Gounder noted.
“A surgical abortion after incomplete/failed medication abortion should not be considered an adverse event. An ectopic pregnancy [when a fertilized egg develops outside the uterus] is not caused by mifepristone and should not be considered a serious adverse event,” the expert continued.