Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, told Congress that he’s directed the Food and Drug Administration to review regulations around the abortion pill mifepristone, outraging reproductive rights advocates after he cited a flawed study on the widely used medication.
“I’ve asked Marty Makary, who’s the director of the FDA, to do a complete review and report back,” Kennedy, a notorious skeptic and conspiracy theorist on vaccines and other public health matters, said of the medication during a Senate budget hearing Wednesday.
Makary is a former Fox News host known for claiming on national television that fetuses can “resist” an abortion.
Kennedy confirmed that any decision on the drug will be informed by a deeply flawed report published last month by a conservative think tank, even though experts say the so-called study has a clear conflict of interest and wasn’t peer-reviewed ― a baseline expectation for research used to alter access to a medication that’s been used by millions of Americans to manage their reproductive health for a quarter-century.
The health secretary went on to say that the new report, which claims 11% of mifepristone users “experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging” after taking it, is “alarming” and “clearly it indicates that at [the] very least that the label should be changed.”
In addition to not being peer-reviewed, the report does not include its dataset and procedure codes, something scientists told HuffPost last month is both unusual, and makes it impossible for other researchers to fully assess its methodology and the integrity of the report’s results.
Kennedy’s remarks were in response to questions from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who’s been leading the ongoing charge to crack down on mifepristone. He celebrated Kennedy’s response on social media.
“That’s a win for life,” he said, sharing a video of their exchange.
Reproductive rights advocates and experts say they’re deeply disturbed by Kennedy’s comments.
“It is clear our rights are under attack. RFK Jr.’s outrageous suggestion that President Trump could decide whether people can access medication abortion was only the start,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement, saying the report Kennedy referenced is completely “bogus.”
Decades of research on mifepristone have produced numerous peer-reviewed studies proving mifepristone to be extremely safe and effective. It’s used in 63% of all abortions, the Guttmacher Institute found last year, up a remarkable 10% from 2020.
“Mifepristone, like every other medication that is prescribed in the United States, goes through a strict approval process prioritizing the safety and efficacy of the medication,” Ashley Jeanlus, an OB-GYN and fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, said.
“Because of the stigma that abortion care has in this country thanks to anti-abortion politicians and officials like the ones discussing the fake-report today, mifepristone has undergone even further scrutiny than other medications,” she continued. “As an abortion provider, I know that attacks on mifepristone are attacks on the health and autonomy of the patients I care for every day.”
Kennedy’s comments Wednesday are in line with what he said during his confirmation hearings in January: that President Donald Trump had directed him to study the safety of mifepristone.
“President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone,” he said. “He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement those policies.”
Although Kennedy’s directive poses health consequences for millions of people, he admitted at Wednesday’s hearing that he’s no expert.
“I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me,” he said three days after advertising that he swam in a sewage-tainted creek with his grandchildren.