WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration says its safety review of mifepristone, the nation’s main abortion pill, will continue into next year, The Associated Press reported.
The FDA gave a court-ordered update in a legal filing late Wednesday, the first substantive information about the review ordered by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The agency said it expects to finish a safety study of the pill by mid-December. A report on the findings is expected “no later than March 2027,” after which the FDA will decide whether to impose new restrictions or other changes.
Abortion opponents quickly criticized the timeline. Gavin Oxley of Americans United for Life said the administration “continues to find itself on the wrong side of women’s health.”
Mifepristone was first approved in 2000. The FDA has repeatedly reaffirmed its safety and effectiveness and has eased restrictions over the years, including dropping a requirement that it be dispensed in person.
Taken with a second drug, misoprostol, it is the most common method of abortion in the U.S.
The update was ordered by a federal appeals court in New Orleans overseeing a lawsuit by Louisiana, which argues that mail delivery of mifepristone undermines the state’s abortion ban. It is one of several state lawsuits over the drug making their way through the courts.
Sources: Associated Press via KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Yinan Chen / Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
