Anti-abortion voices are growing increasingly impatient for the Trump administration to complete a review of the abortion pill mifepristone, which would likely alter its approval. But changing abortion access at the federal level could imperil an already vulnerable GOP in the upcoming midterms.
President Trump repeatedly pledged during the campaign last year that he would leave abortion policy to the states, but anti-abortion advocates and lawmakers have been pushing him to go further and sharply restrict the availability of mifepristone.
So far, that hasn’t happened, and patience is wearing thin.
A letter sent to a group of GOP state attorneys general in September confirmed that the FDA was reviewing evidence about the safety of mifepristone to investigate how it can be safely dispensed.
The disclosure garnered some cautious optimism on the right, as lawmakers and activists said they hoped the FDA would soon act to roll back regulatory changes that made mifepristone easier to access.
Yet the review hasn’t been completed, and recent reporting suggests the agency has been slow-walking it out of political concerns.
In response, the anti-abortion powerhouse Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America called for FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to be fired.
SBA previously led letter-writing campaigns that resulted in more than 220 members of Congress urging the FDA to end telemedicine access to mifepristone.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, doubled down on calls to complete the review as well as for information about the approval of a second generic version of the drug.
“The American people deserve to know why HHS and FDA continue to ignore their responsibility to safeguard mothers and unborn children from this harmful drug,” he said earlier this month.
Restricting access to the drug nationwide was a key goal in Project 2025, and anti-abortion groups are furious that mifepristone’s continued availability through telemedicine and states with shield laws has helped keep abortion accessible after the end of Roe v. Wade.
But President Trump’s approval ratings have sunk to record lows, and rolling back abortion access is politically unpopular.
Trump isn’t going to be on the ballot again, and doesn’t necessarily need the support of the anti-abortion movement. While conservative lawmakers may be agitating for more action, control of the House is likely to hinge on swing state Republicans— who are likely fine without the White House wading into abortion.
