Republican Introduces New Pro-Life Bill
A new legislative push in Washington is reopening one of the most contentious policy battles in American politics. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri announced Wednesday that he is introducing legislation to revoke the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, the drug widely used in chemical abortions. The proposal comes amid growing frustration among pro-life advocates who say the federal government has delayed a promised safety review of the medication.
Speaking at a press conference, Hawley argued that Congress must intervene directly if federal regulators fail to act. According to the senator, the issue has reached a point where legislative action is the only remaining option.
“Only Congress can address this situation,” Hawley said. “It is time for Congress to ban the use of mifepristone for abortion.”
Mifepristone, typically used in combination with another drug called misoprostol, has become the most common method of abortion in the United States since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Its use has expanded significantly in recent years, particularly as telemedicine and mail-order prescriptions have made access easier in states with fewer restrictions.
Hawley’s bill would not only revoke FDA approval of the drug but would also create a legal pathway for women who say they were harmed by the medication to sue its manufacturers. During the press conference, the senator sharply criticized the pharmaceutical companies that produce the drug, accusing them of prioritizing profits over patient safety.
He described the manufacturers as “greedy foreign corporations” that have made billions of dollars while distributing what he characterized as a dangerous medication.
Rosalie Markezich, who is suing the FDA alongside Louisiana to end mail-order abortions, shares her story of being coerced into taking the pill by her ex-boyfriend.
.@HawleyMO is introducing a bill that would strip FDA approval for mifepristone. pic.twitter.com/q4E0Q35IUg
— Katelynn Richardson (@katesrichardson) March 11, 2026
The legislation draws heavily on findings from a 2025 study conducted by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which analyzed insurance data and reported that roughly one in ten women who took the abortion pill experienced what researchers classified as a “serious adverse event.” Those findings have been disputed by many medical organizations, which maintain that mifepristone has a strong safety record based on decades of clinical data.
At the press conference, several women shared personal accounts of complications they said followed their use of the abortion pill. Their stories included descriptions of severe bleeding, emergency medical treatment, and psychological trauma. One woman described experiencing heavy bleeding and discovering the embryonic sac during the process, an event she said led to a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The legislative push comes as tensions grow between pro-life activists and the Trump administration over the government’s legal stance in ongoing abortion-pill litigation. Last week, the Department of Justice filed a motion seeking to pause or dismiss Missouri’s lawsuit aimed at reinstating previous federal restrictions on mifepristone.
Pro-life groups reacted strongly to the filing. Leaders from several organizations argued that the administration’s legal position effectively sides with abortion providers rather than with women who say they were harmed by the drug.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said advocates had hoped the administration would reinstate stricter safety rules for the medication but now believe those efforts may have stalled.
“We are waiting. We are waiting. We are waiting,” she said. “And I think we’ve passed the point where we decided this is a dead end.”
Another speaker at the event, Rosalie Markezich, described her experience as part of a separate lawsuit in Louisiana. She said she was coerced by her boyfriend into taking an abortion pill that had been obtained through the mail and argued that current regulations fail to adequately protect women in similar situations.
Hawley said his proposed legislation would prevent doctors from prescribing the drug and would establish new legal rights for women who claim they were harmed by it.
“One of the most important things the bill does is that it gives rights to victims,” he said. “It gives rights to the women who currently don’t have any recourse.”
The proposal is expected to face a difficult path in Congress, where abortion policy remains sharply divided. Still, the introduction of the bill signals that the political battle over abortion pills — now the center of the nation’s abortion debate — is far from settled.