Republicans Push for Abortion Pill Study as States Ask for Bans

Senate Republicans pushed for clarity Wednesday from the Trump administration over a long-awaited safety study of abortion medication while states urged further restrictions to help keep pills out of their states.

Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said he was disappointed that the US Food and Drug Administration hasn’t moved faster to restore a previous requirement that the abortion medication mifepristone be dispensed in person. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 2025 promised a review of the drug’s safety, but the FDA has reportedly delayed the study until after the midterm elections.

“I really hope that that’s not the case,” Banks said in a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on abortion medication.

“I was hoping that Dr. Makary would be here today so that we could ask him some of these questions directly and clear up those rumors,” Banks said. “I hope that Dr. Makary and the FDA will address this important issue without further delay.”

Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he hoped to have Makary come before the committee “very soon,” and that he’s “been speaking with the FDA to facilitate the discussion of this and other issues.”

The hearing revolved around safety of and access to abortion pills, issues that have become increasingly polarized since the US Supreme Court in 2022 left abortion restrictions to the states. Now, Republican states are calling on the federal government to take action to help them enforce their own restrictions against the mailing of abortion pills over their borders.

Meanwhile, Democrats took issue with the idea of even having a hearing, noting mifepristone has widely been proven to be safe, and that limited research stating otherwise has been discredited.

“Republicans are holding this hearing to peddle debunked junk studies by anti-abortion organizations, which have no credibility and have been forcefully condemned by actual medical organizations to justify reinstating more burdensome requirements and ultimately ripping medication abortion off the shelves entirely,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.)

Shield Laws

Much of the hearing homed in on the interplay between the mailing of abortion pills and state bans on reproductive services.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who testified before the committee, said her state “prohibits aiding and abetting and facilitating and the procurement, distribution, or use of such drugs.” However, she said efforts by the Biden administration made it easier to get abortion pills into Louisiana, as did laws in states led by Democrats.

“Shield laws in some states protect providers from liability and effectively nullify laws in our states. Their purpose is to make it more difficult to sue or prosecute individuals in those states where abortion drugs are prohibited. They also make it more difficult for women coerced into taking abortion drugs to bring their abusers to justice,” Murrill said.

Louisiana in 2024 passed a law classifying abortion medication as dangerous controlled substances.

Murrill’s views were backed by over 15 state attorneys general, who all urged the committee to think about pre-empting abortion shield laws.

In a Tuesday letter to the committee, the AGs—from states such as Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas—characterized shield laws as “blatant attempts to interfere with States’ ability to enforce criminal laws within their borders, and they disrupt our constitutional structure.”

“These shield laws attempt to protect shield-state residents from liability and prosecution when they violate pro-life States’ abortion laws,” the AGs said. They added that the laws “encourage medical professionals in pro-abortion states to violate pro-life States’ abortion laws.”

However, Nisha Verma, a fellow with the Physicians for Reproductive Health, said Louisiana’s bid to restrict abortion pill access by making them controlled substances is having a “dramatic impact” on people needing abortion care, such as those having postpartum hemorrhages.

Murrill, however, noted “that we live in a land of the rule of law,” and that people against Louisiana law can seek care in other states.