On Sept. 30, 2025, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a generic version of the chemical abortion drug, mifepristone. This decision follows years of the FDA loosening safety standards—such as removing in-person medical requirements and physician oversight—despite mounting data showing serious risks to women, including hemorrhage, infection, and sepsis. By authorizing an additional generic, the FDA increases the likelihood of wider distribution and use of a drug that not only endangers women but also takes the lives of countless preborn children.
As a response, the ERLC is urging the Trump administration to restore regulatory safeguards that better protect women and their children. In the letter sent today, we call for the reversal of this approval entirely to protect women and children from this dangerous drug.
“Recent data reveal that out of 865,727 chemical abortions between 2017 and 2023, 94,605 women suffered serious adverse events. This complication rate, over 1 in 10, is more than 20 times higher than the FDA has reported. These complications include sepsis, infection, and hemorrhage, conditions that place women at significant and unnecessary risk.”
What should Southern Baptists know about this FDA approval of the generic chemical abortion pill?
Southern Baptists should be aware that federal agencies continue to make abortion more accessible through chemical means, often downplaying or ignoring risks to women. The Church can advocate for policies that protect vulnerable women and children and continue to minister with compassion to those harmed by abortion while bearing witness to the dignity of every human life.
The ERLC strongly opposes the FDA’s approval of this generic drug at all. While Southern Baptists ultimately call for mifepristone to be removed from the market entirely, we are urging the Trump Administration and FDA to, at a minimum, reinstate critical safeguards, strengthen adverse event reporting, and suspend the approval pending an independent safety review.
What do Southern Baptists believe about abortion?
Southern Baptists affirm that every human is created in the image of God. As stated in these 2025 and 2022 resolutions approved by the Southern Baptist Convention, the Bible clearly and unequivocally affirms “the preborn child is a person, bearing the image of God, from the moment of conception” (Gen. 1:27; 9:6), regardless of age, level of ability, or stage of development. This is a truth to which Christians in every century have testified and are called to bear witness in every age and in every sphere of life. Additionally, the Convention’s Baptist Faith & Message affirms that “children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord” and calls us to “speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death.”
Southern Baptists spoke to chemical abortion at the 2025 annual meeting through the Resolution On Standing Against the Moral Evils and Medical Dangers of Chemical Abortion Pills, at the 2022 annual meeting through the resolution “On Anticipation of a Historic Moment in the Pro-life Movement” and at the 2019 annual meeting through a resolution “On Protecting Religious Liberty.”
What is chemical abortion?
Chemical abortion is a type of abortion that uses an abortifacient to stimulate uterine contractions and end the life of a preborn child. These drugs take the life of a preborn child and also pose serious health risks and harm to the women who take them. In 2020, chemical abortions surpassed surgical abortions for the first time, making up 53% of the national total. Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, many states have expanded access to abortion drugs like mifepristone in an effort to provide abortion access across state lines, despite pro-life protections in place.
What should the federal government do in response to the rise in chemical abortions?
The federal government bears responsibility in the fight to eliminate even the perceived need for abortion. Through federal funding, the approval of various chemical drugs like mifepristone through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and implementing conscience protections, the federal government has the ability to cultivate a culture that either promotes life or death.
What has the ERLC done in the past to oppose chemical abortion?
The ERLC has asked the FDA to categorize the abortion pill mifepristone as an “imminent hazard to the public health. Post-Dobbs, the FDA has allowed local retail pharmacies to continue to dispense abortion drugs, furthering the accessibility of these life-taking drugs and placing more vulnerable people at risk. In recent months, the ERLC has taken the following actions:
- Letter to President Trump support mail regulations for chemical abortion drug mifepristone
- ERLC Joins Coalition of Pro-Life Groups Urging Trump Administration to Take Action on the Abortion Pill
- Letter to oppose coverage of abortifacient contraceptives
Read more about how the ERLC has opposed chemical abortions.
