The ERLC joined pro-life leaders in a recent letter to President Trump asking for his administration to protect the rights of states to defend unborn children by allowing states to enforce their pro-life laws and restore the original safety protocols for the drug mifepristone. We ask that the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) investigate this drug, altogether reconsidering its approval due to the recent data showing dangerous side effects in women who have taken the pill.
The letter highlights serious threats to the health of women who take mifepristone for chemical abortions:
“The FDA label for mifepristone states fewer than 0.5 percent of women experience serious adverse reactions from mifepristone.1 https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2016/020687s020lbl.pdf#page=7 However, data released April 28, 2025 examines 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions from 2017 to 2023 and demonstrates that 10.93 percent of women—22 times higher than the FDA reported 0.5 percent—experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following a mifepristone abortion. The risk from mifepristone could jeopardize a mother’s life.2https://eppc.org/publication/stop-harming-women/
https://www.ffroa.com/chemical-abortion-research/“
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 both 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 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.
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.
Many states already have laws that protect against the use of mifepristone not only because of the danger to the preborn child but also because of the dangerous health risks to women.
“Ectopic pregnancies account for 13% of all maternal deaths. Without an ultrasound, a pregnant mother would not know if her pregnancy was ectopic. If a woman with an ectopic pregnancy takes mifepristone, the drug regimen will not affect the embryo, and the embryo will continue to grow.3Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. Major Risks and Complications of Chemical Abortion for Women. March 10, https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/2021-12/risks-complications-chemical-abortion.pdf A mother experiencing the severe pain caused by fallopian tube rupture may mistakenly think it is a consequence of her abortion—not complication of ectopic pregnancy that could kill her.
Other complications from mifepristone could render a woman unable to carry another child to term, even through IVF. When a woman is pregnant, she is typically tested for Rh negativity. If the pregnant mother is Rh negative, she receives prophylactic RhoGAM shot to prevent isoimmunization, a condition where the mother’s immune system attacks unborn children across multiple pregnancies, potentially causing one or more fetus’s deaths. A woman undergoing a mifepristone abortion may not know that she is Rh negative, and consequently, may not receive a protective RhoGAM shot. While an in-person visit would easily detect if a woman were Rh negative, thanks to the Biden/Harris administration, there is no longer a requirement for such a visit—leaving the possibility that women who do not receive this shot will not be able to carry future pregnancies to term.
Unfortunately, one can’t rule out that mifepristone can even harm women who do not take it. Unborn babies who die from mifepristone abortions are often flushed down the toilet causing mifepristone to be detected in wastewater treatment facilities. Limited research shows that mifepristone acts as an endocrine disruptor that, to the extent it appears in our water supply, may be a contributing factor to infertility and miscarriage.4https://www.studentsforlifeaction.org/sflaction-submits-new-letter-to-congress-demanding-action-from-epa-onchemical-abortion-pollutants-in-water-supply/“
The ERLC has previously 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.
Southern Baptists affirm that every human is created in the image of God. As stated in a 2022 resolution of 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.”
