How did we get here, to the point that abortion pills can be ordered online, mailed, and taken with no medical supervision or safeguards against coercion?
How have we done such a disservice to women regarding the truth about chemical abortion?
Those poignant questions were asked by Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana when the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a January 14 hearing on protecting women from abortion drugs.
Cassidy, a medical doctor, shared the devastating consequences of chemical abortion drugs at the hearing, calling on Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary to fulfill their promise to complete a safety review of mifepristone.
“Chemical abortion drugs are not safe, run-of-the-mill drugs. They are certainly not safe for the unborn baby and as we all know, there are potential serious complications for the mother too,” Cassidy said. “One study showed that 9 in 10 women who take a chemical abortion drug describe their pain as moderate to severe. And half of women say the experience was worse than expected. Another study found that one in ten women taking mifepristone experienced serious adverse events, including hemorrhaging, sepsis, or infection.”
“This is not just about statistics; It is about real women with real stories.”
Cassidy shared two of those stories in his opening statement:
- A woman named Salome described experiencing extreme physical pain and heavy bleeding during her abortion, saying it felt like her insides were being torn apart. She later expressed deep regret, recounting the moment she saw her child and fully realized she had ended a life she had carried.
- Shanyce said the cramps were unbearable and felt like being stabbed in the stomach. Complications left her with sepsis, leading to a two-month hospitalization, a partial hysterectomy, and the need to relearn basic daily activities.
Regarding his question asking, “How did we get here?” Cassidy said the current lax standards for abortion drugs were the result of policy changes by the Obama and Biden administrations.
Under the Obama administration, the FDA eliminated the requirement to report nonfatal adverse events associated with abortion pills, significantly reducing federal oversight of the drugs’ safety and limiting systematic monitoring of serious complications.
Under the Biden administration, the removal of the in-person dispensing requirement further loosened safeguards by allowing abortion pills to be prescribed without a physical exam, reducing checks for gestational age, ectopic pregnancy, and other conditions that can increase medical risk.
This summer, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that the rise in abortion pill distribution has been a major driver of abortion statistics in recent years. Despite the high number of state-level abortion bans following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, data suggest that abortion rates have remained steady or even increased, the JAMA study concluded.
This new abortion reality carries significant risks for mothers. According to a 2025 study from the Ethics and Policy Center, the rate of serious health complications following mifepristone abortions is at least 22 times higher than the number found on current drug labels. Researchers Jamie Bryan Hall and Ryan T. Anderson have urged the FDA to reinstate earlier patient protocols and reconsider its approval of mifepristone altogether.
“Women deserve better than the abortion pill,” they wrote.
At the Senate hearing, Cassidy was joined by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who testified on the dangers of mail-ordered abortion drugs, sharing accounts of women and girls coerced or drugged with the abortion pill.
“Activists have created an organized and dangerous scheme of drug dealing protected by politicians,” said Murrill. “These are not medical standards. There are no medical standards in any state that sanction such irresponsible actions by a medical professional. And political preferences do not justify placing women at such medical risk.”
Cassidy and members of the Senate HELP Committee are Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary to complete a safety review of mifepristone.
“Republican members of this Committee and many other Senators expect an answer,” he said. “At an absolute minimum, the previous in-person safeguards must be restored immediately.”
“I’m a doctor, and if the first rule is do no harm—the way things work today has the potential to do a lot of harm.”