In a time where safety protocols for the abortion drug have steadily dwindled, even to the point of the substance being shipped through the mail on a daily basis without a prescription, recent polling revealed a clear consensus: The majority of American voters — including 57% of liberal voters — want at least a doctor’s visit to be required.
The poll, released by McLaughlin & Associates, found seven in 10 voters want to restore protections that were removed by the Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the abortion drug mifepristone. This includes reinstating required doctor visits to receive the abortion pill. Just last year, a Navigator Research poll revealed 58% of respondents wanted access to chemical abortion “through telehealth and the mail.” Yet, even with the majority of the 1,600 likely voters recently polled holding the pro-abortion position — with another 36% who were “strongly” pro-abortion — many voters now have “significant doubts about the safety of the chemical abortion drug.”
For example, a collective 59% of respondents said chemical abortion is “somewhat” or “very” unsafe, or that they don’t know. Meanwhile, only 16% believe abortion pills are “very safe.” Below are some of the statements the voters were asked to agree or disagree with:
- “FDA drug labels should accurately report the real-world impact of the chemical abortion drugs on patients who take it, this includes possible harmful side effects and complications of the abortion drug, such as heavy bleeding, sepsis, stomach pains, infections, scarring, pre-term labor in future pregnancies, and depression and mental health issues.” (87% agreed)
- “No one should be able to get chemical abortion drugs online or from a foreign country and be able to give them to a woman without her knowledge or consent.” (81% agreed)
- “Manufacturers have pressured the FDA to lower the health and safety standards on their chemical abortion drugs to sell more of them. Big drug companies’ profits should not come before women’s health and safety.” (72% agreed)
- “Previously Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump required an in-person doctors’ visit to have a chemical abortion. President Biden removed that safeguard. Now the number of women experiencing serious, harmful effects from taking chemical abortion drugs has risen dramatically so it makes sense for the FDA to bring back those safety protections.” (69% agreed)
This survey follows the Trump administration’s approval of a new generic abortion drug — a move met with significant backlash. On October 9, 51 Republican senators sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary demanding a suspension of the newly approved abortion drug. The senators also stressed the need to put back safeguards. The survey asked voters whether they approved of the following proposals:
- “Requiring FDA Drug labels to accurately report the real-world impact of a drug on the patients that take it.” (90% approved)
- “Requiring a doctor’s visit in order for the chemical abortion drug to be prescribed to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.” (71% approved)
- “Requiring doctors to screen for and report signs of coercion or abuse before prescribing chemical abortion drugs.” (70% approved)
Mary Szoch, director of Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, made note of a main takeaway from the poll: “Americans — including a majority of Democrats — do not want abortion drugs sent through the mail, and recognize that mifepristone is not safe for women and certainly is not safe for unborn children.” As she told The Washington Stand, “We’ve read the stories that detail the way the current dispensing of the drug has enabled the horrific acts abusers have inflicted on pregnant mothers.” By and large? “Americans want to protect women and unborn children,” Szoch argued. “It’s only extremists and Democratic politicians who do not.”
Szoch and other pro-life advocates see the opportunity for the Trump administration, namely, “to act on the will of the American people with regard to mifepristone.” At the very least, Szoch added, “this polling shows restoring safeguards that will mitigate the number of serious physical complications mothers experience after using the drug is a 70/30 issue.” Reportedly, the Trump administration’s FDA is in the process of reviewing mifepristone and whether it is safe for women. Szoch stressed how, during its review, “the FDA should at minimum reinstate the in-person dispensing requirements of the drug as well as the reporting requirements for complications.”
In addition to bringing back protections that were previously in place, Szoch recommended some new safeguards as well. “The FDA should add in an ultrasound requirement,” she said. “This would be completely in line with what Americans — including liberal ones — want. Restoring minimum safety requirements would not only mitigate the risk for moms, it also would be a politically savvy move.” Susan B. Anothy Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser echoed this, stating how the “twenty-one states whose laws are being undermined and their most vulnerable populations threatened by the flood of out-of-state drugs will” be thankful once safeguards are restored.
“When the FDA completes an unbiased review of mifepristone, I have no doubt that its results will provide even more evidence of how incredibly dangerous mifepristone is for moms,” Szoch concluded. “When that happens, there will be no excuse not to completely pull the drug from the market.”
LifeNews Note: Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand, where this originally appeared.
