No surprise, the Food and Drug Administration now plans to hold off on releasing its so-called safety review of mifepristone, the drug most often used in medication abortions, until March 2027, when the midterms will be safely in the rearview mirror.
The Contrarian has been following the study ever since Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. commissioned it in 2025. All along, the assignment has smacked of a pressure campaign from the anti-abortion base, furious that abortion rates haven’t dropped since the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022.
According to a court-ordered update filed last week by the Justice Department, the FDA study intends to compare the safety and side effects of mifepristone versus surgical abortions in 100,000 women. This is the first public accounting of the plan, which has largely been kept under wraps.
Why has the FDA been so hush-hush? It’s certainly no secret the drug has a long-documented and well-established safety and efficacy record since its 2000 approval. It is pretty clear the study is more about providing a gesture to the angry Trump base and engaging in a grand stall tactic. At the end of the day, if the FDA reports anything to the contrary of its prior findings, it would be serving up a justification to curb access, which would have a nationwide impact — even in states where abortion is still legal. And though that may be a fever dream for conservatives, Donald Trump and his acolytes know full well it would be wildly unpopular with an already agitated electorate.
Translation: They’re laying low until after the midterms.
There are a few other sticky aspects to note about the timing. First and foremost, the FDA is currently without leadership. Trump’s pick to be the next commissioner, Dr. Heidi Overton, staunchly opposes abortion rights, including medication abortion. She’s made no bones about what her priority will be if given full reign. The Senate won’t vote on her confirmation until after the midterms.
And then there is the administration’s role in defending a Louisiana lawsuit challenging the telehealth provision of mifepristone. The case has been a roller coaster: After a federal appeals court granted the state’s request to reinstate a nationwide requirement that mifepristone be dispensed only in person, the Supreme Court blocked that decision while the litigation plays out. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has been tepid in its defense, attempting to call as little attention as possible to the massive ramifications.
In the court papers filed last week in response to the court’s demand for an update on the safety review — thank you again to the judiciary for demanding daylight — the Justice Department indicated it may indeed re-evaluate telehealth rules based on the FDA’s new data.
Don’t let the administration’s lack of bravado here be a distraction from its real endgame. None of us can afford to take our eyes off the FDA, including and especially when we head to the ballot box. The administration’s goal of enacting what would amount to a nationwide abortion ban is a stealth campaign that will catch up to us after we’ve voted. That’s a blow to democracy we can’t afford.
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf is executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU School of Law. She also leads strategy and partnerships at Ms. Magazine.
