October 9, 2026
Students for Life of America (SFLA) has been warning the country about the horrific effects of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) loosening the safety standards around mifepristone, the hormone-blocking pill used to end the lives of preborn children in chemical abortions. Now, a new study has proved us right: the FDA used inadequate studies to justify the move.
The new study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) evaluated what happened when the FDA removed safety regulations called Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) from mifepristone in 2023. The results were shocking.
“Few, if any, of the studies cited by the FDA adequately replicated the real-world conditions of use which the FDA has allowed,” said CLI’s findings. “For example, in real-world conditions, it is often not possible to obtain and review ultrasounds or labs for high-risk women, as these drugs are often being remotely requested by telemedicine or online and sometimes dispensed to U.S. women from providers located out of state or even out of the country.”
While the FDA claims that complications from chemical abortion pills are small, CLI points out the obvious problem with this claim: there is no mandatory reporting of abortion complications (or abortion at all), meaning we do not have a complete record of how many women are being hurt by this pill.
Made by Danco Laboratories, Mifepristone was first approved under the brand name Mifeprex in 2000 and rapidly deregulated by Democrat presidents without consideration of massive risks, including how the mass-mailing and telehealth prescription of the drug would affect public health and safety.
Now, over 50 tons of chemical abortion pill pollution made of mifepristone-tainted blood, placental tissue, human remains, and waste go into our waterways. A peer-reviewed water study recently confirmed the presence of mifepristone and its equivalents in our water.
As SFLA noted in three citizens petitions to the FDA, the abortion industry’s death-by-pill scheme poses extreme danger to our environment, endangered species, and our water quality. This is not to mention how these pills end up in the hands of abusers and human traffickers to commit abortions on victims against their will.
CLI’s study highlighted these realities, especially when it comes to unregulated, often foreign online chemical abortion pill vendors. The report states:
Theoretically, the U.S.-based organizations are performing standard medical intakes to determine eligibility for the drugs as required by the FDA, but there is little evidence documenting how vigorously they screen for contraindications or whether they are always able to order and review pre-abortion testing if indicated. Those operating outside the formal U.S. healthcare system don’t adhere to the REMS. Instead, they obtain their drugs from international distributors and may provide no medical screening or assistance to women. From January 2024 through December 2024, telehealth abortions occurring within the formal healthcare system were estimated to account for 22% of all U.S. abortions, with the number steadily increasing.
. . . Inability to verify that the person ordering the drugs is a woman seeking abortion has also led to cases reported in the media of unwanted abortions coerced by abusive partners.
The study came in time for the FDA’s announcement that they would be slow walking the mifepristone review until after the election, estimating results as late as March 2027. SFLA President Kristan Hawkins called the status report and study “incomplete and insufficient” as the FDA failed to acknowledge these obvious concerns.
SFLA recently filed an intent to sue the FDA for failing to conduct proper environmental testing as required by the “Endangered Species Act” (ESA) in its approval of mifepristone. The ESA requires testing on pharmaceutical products to show the product will not cause harm to the over 1,500 endangered species populations across the U.S before it can be approved.
Watch the News Briefing on the Intent to Sue Filing HERE.
READ MORE FROM STUDENTS FOR LIFE:
The EPA Must Investigate Our Water “Tainted by Pharmaceuticals:” Kristi Hamrick in The Federalist