Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, informed Congress that he’s directed the Food and Drug Administration to overview laws across the abortion tablet mifepristone, outraging reproductive rights advocates after he cited a flawed research on the broadly used remedy.
“I’ve asked Marty Makary, who’s the director of the FDA, to do a complete review and report back,” Kennedy, a infamous skeptic and conspiracy theorist on vaccines and different public well being issues, stated of the remedy throughout a Senate finances listening to Wednesday.
Makary is a former Fox News host recognized for claiming on nationwide tv that fetuses can “resist” an abortion.
Kennedy confirmed that any determination on the drug can be knowledgeable by a deeply flawed report revealed final month by a conservative assume tank, regardless that consultants say the so-called research has a transparent battle of curiosity and wasn’t peer-reviewed ― a baseline expectation for analysis used to change entry to a medicine that’s been utilized by hundreds of thousands of Americans to handle their reproductive well being for a quarter-century.
The well being secretary went on to say that the brand new report, which claims 11% of mifepristone customers “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 doesn’t embrace its dataset and process codes, one thing scientists informed HuffPost final month is each uncommon, and makes it inconceivable for different researchers to totally assess its methodology and the integrity of the report’s outcomes.
Kennedy’s remarks have been in response to questions from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who’s been main the continuing cost to crack down on mifepristone. He celebrated Kennedy’s response on social media.
“That’s a win for life,” he stated, sharing a video of their change.
Reproductive rights advocates and consultants say they’re deeply disturbed by Kennedy’s feedback.
“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, stated in a press release, saying the report Kennedy referenced is totally “bogus.”
Decades of analysis on mifepristone have produced quite a few peer-reviewed research proving mifepristone to be extraordinarily protected and efficient. It’s utilized in 63% of all abortions, the Guttmacher Institute discovered final 12 months, up a outstanding 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, stated.
“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 feedback Wednesday are consistent with what he stated throughout his affirmation hearings in January: that President Donald Trump had directed him to check the security of mifepristone.
“President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone,” he stated. “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 well being penalties for hundreds of thousands of individuals, he admitted at Wednesday’s listening to that he’s no skilled.
“I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me,” he stated three days after promoting that he swam in a sewage-tainted creek together with his grandchildren.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/robert-f-kennedy-jr-abortion-pill_n_68262feee4b0a8ff0de6f7e4