81% of Companies Selling Abortion Pills Violate FDA Safety Regulations

A revealing new study shows that many abortion pill distributors are flouting regulations in how they dispense harmful Mifepristone to women.

The study, released last week by the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), found that 64 drug sellers (81 percent of online vendors) are willing to dispense Mifepristone to women beyond the FDA’s 10-week gestational limit for the drug. The report also noted that 10 companies are violating federal law by selling “unapproved and misbranded abortion drugs” while eight online-only vendors are violating the federal Comstock Act and state abortion bans by shipping the drugs into pro-life states.

The new study comes as the FDA recently conceded in a federal lawsuit out of Louisiana challenging Mifepristone’s mail-order availability that it had failed to adequately study whether remotely prescribing the abortion drug is safe. Even though the FDA is taking a comprehensive review of the drug’s safety, it has not reinstated any of the safety regulations loosened by the Biden administration, which had removed the in-person dispensing requirement and allowed retail pharmacies to dispense the drug by mail.

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CLI research associate Mia Steupert, who authored the study, compiled the activity data of these individual drug vendors simply by going online without any “risky, undercover operations” and finding out which companies would sell her the drugs despite gestation and location.

“…only 19% complied with the FDA’s requirement to not ship the drugs after 70 days’ gestation,” wrote Steupert. She also reported that nine of the 31 organizations that publicly reported whether they employ age limits before sending drugs said there was no age requirement and that it was dependent on state law.

“One organization required girls to be 12 or older, one required them to be 15 or older, eight required them to be 16 or older, and one required them to be 17 or older,” reads the report.

Steupert also found that of the 28 abortion pill-selling websites that had received formal abuse letters from the FDA in 2019, 10 still remain active today and continue to break federal law by selling “unapproved and misbranded abortion drugs to U.S. women.”

In addition, the report notes that “eight organizations utilize shield laws” to protect providers while shipping abortion pills directly into the 13 states where active near-total abortion bans are in effect.

“The abortionist who sends these drugs is shielded from prosecution by his state, but is breaking the law of the state where the woman resides,” wrote Steupert. “In 2024, shield laws allowed for 76,310 abortion drug regimens to be sent to women in states with full nine-month protections, 25,180 into states with 6-week limits, and 19,340 to women in states with telehealth restrictions.”

The study found that three international online organizations, Telefem Mexico, Abortion Pill in Private, and Women on the Web “provide non-FDA-approved drugs manufactured outside of the FDA’s approved supply chain.”

Steupert characterized the landscape of acquiring abortion drugs outside the U.S. health care system as the “wild west” with virtually “zero safeguards” in place on international e-commerce websites or community networks. She also noted that that even within the U.S. healthcare system, many telehealth providers fall short of the standards and regulations typically associated with telehealth services.

“Federal law prohibits the mailing of abortion drugs within the formal U.S. healthcare system and the importation of unapproved abortion drugs outside of the formal healthcare system,” wrote Steupert. “However, the federal government hasn’t enforced these laws.”

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Abortion pills harm women and cruelly kill innocent unborn children in the womb. Whether it is Mifepristone or unbranded or misbranded drugs, trafficking abortion pills through the mail or beyond gestation limits, especially to pro-life states, is illegal under federal and state laws. The FDA should revoke Mifepristone’s safety approval, and the Comstock Act must be enforced.”