{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415135", "Catholic Standard article on Smith-Harshbarger letter to Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary'175 lawmakers demand \"robust\" investigation on risks of abortion pill'", "2025-11-26", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Our Sunday Visitor\n\nPublished November 26, 2025\n\nCongressional Republicans are demanding a \u201crobust\u201d investigation of federal safety standards and health risks connected to mifepristone, a pill commonly, but not exclusively, used for early abortion.\n\nThe letter, dated Nov. 20 and co-signed by 175 Republican lawmakers, asks Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary to investigate the \u201cdeleterious and grossly underreported effects\u201d of mifepristone on women, prohibit mail shipment of the drug, and immediately \u201creinstate the in-person dispensing requirement.\u201d\n\nReleased Nov. 24, the letter also condemned the Biden administration\u2019s \u201cegregious action to remove critical safeguards that once applied to abortion drugs.\u201d In addition to urging an end to the mailing of the drugs, the letter objected to \u201cthe FDA\u2019s approval\u201d in September of a new generic form of mifepristone and urged the Trump administration to provide more information about that approval.\n\nA box containing a mifepristone tablet is pictured Feb. 28, 2023. In November 2025, more than 170 Republican lawmakers, including the entire House GOP leadership, released a new letter to the HHS secretary and FDA commissioner urging \u201crobust FDA investigation and review\u201d of the safety standards and health risks associated with mifepristone as used in chemical abortions. (OSV News photo/Callaghan O\u2019Hare, via Reuters)\n\nSigners of the letter include House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both of Louisiana; Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota; and Rep. Lisa C. McClain, R-Mich, Republican Conference chairwoman.\n\n\u201cThe Biden-Harris administration\u2019s blatant disregard for the innumerable health risks and complications caused by mifepristone \u2013 the baby poison pill \u2013 has been the status quo for far too long,\u201d Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said in a statement accompanying release of the letter. \u201cThe carelessness of Biden\u2019s FDA has taken and harmed thousands of lives, the unborn and their mothers alike.\u201d\n\n\u201cRecent findings raise real questions about the safety of chemical abortion pills like mifepristone, and Americans deserve straight answers about the risks involved,\u201d Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., said in a statement. A licensed pharmacist, she is vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.\n\n\u201cNo medication with known complications should be handed out without proper medical oversight and follow-up care,\u201d she added.\n\nFirst approved by the FDA for early abortion in 2000, mifepristone \u2013 the first of two drugs used in a medication-based abortion \u2013 gained the moniker \u201cthe abortion pill.\u201d However, the same drug combination has become used sometimes in recent years for miscarriage care, where an unborn child has already died, a situation that Catholic teaching would hold as morally licit use.\n\nThe Catholic Church opposes direct abortion. It teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion.\n\nThe lawmakers\u2019 Nov. 20 letter follows an Oct. 29 pledge by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America national to push the Trump administration for more information regarding the FDA approval of the new generic form of mifepristone.\n\nIn a related development regarding mifepristone, Students for Life Action hailed the introduction Nov. 24 of the Clean Water for All Life Act in the Wisconsin Legislature. Other states considering the same legislation include Arizona, Idaho, Maine, West Virginia and Wyoming.\n\nThe measure is co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Lindee Brill and Nate Gustafson and Republican Sen. Andre Jacque.\n\nThe bill would require doctors who prescribe abortion pills to make patients collect and return their expelled fetus in medical waste bags for disposal. It\u2019s intended to keep abortion pill chemicals from entering public water supplies.\n\nPreviously, the FDA has rejected the idea, issuing a response to a Students for Life petition that the agency require prescribers to include a \u201cmedical waste bag and catch-kit\u201d with all mifepristone prescriptions.\n\nThe petition, the agency said, \u201coffers only conjecture that remnants of mifepristone in the nation\u2019s water system are \u2018causing unknown harm to citizens and animals alike,\u2019\u201d and that Students for Life \u201cprovides no evidence showing that bodily fluid from patients who have used mifepristone (a one-time, single-dose product) is causing harm to the nation\u2019s aquatic environment.\u201d\n\nWater treatment processes handle many forms of medications, including birth control pills, in trace amounts.\n\nIn a Nov. 21 statement, Student for Life president Kristan Hawkins called mifepristone \u201cthe abortion industry\u2019s dirty little secret. Hospitals and medical clinics can\u2019t legally flush chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains, but the Biden administration gave a de facto permit to pollute in allowing chemical abortion pill pushers to supersize their markets with \u2026 online sales and delivery by mail. It\u2019s up to the Trump administration to finally do the environmental testing that\u2019s been ignored and to go back to the drawing board on chemical abortion pills.\u201d\n\nThe Students for Life effort began in 2024, when, as part of a coalition of pro-life groups, it demanded that the EPA track the \u201cforever chemicals\u201d in mifepristone.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415135"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7631401531398296, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}