The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities is urging Congress to pass legislation forcing the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval of mifepristone, the dangerous abortion pills that kills babies and hurts women.
Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, sent a letter to congressional leaders supporting the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act (S. 4066/H.R. 7902). Introduced in March by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., the bill would withdraw the FDA’s approval of mifepristone for abortions, prohibit labeling the drug for that use and give people injured by the drug the right to sue its manufacturers.
“The abortion pill represents an isolating and harmful response to women in need,” Bishop Thomas said.
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In the letter, Thomas wrote that Catholic teaching holds “all human life is sacred from the moment of conception until natural death and that both the life of the mother and the preborn child possess equal, inherent dignity.”
He added that the U.S. bishops have frequently stressed how the abortion pill “represents an isolating and harmful response to women in need, who deserve better in the form of compassionate accompaniment and meaningful support to help them welcome their child.”
Chemical abortions now account for almost two-thirds of all abortions in the United States, “resulting in hundreds of thousands of preborn children lost each year,” the letter states.
Since mifepristone was first approved over twenty-five years ago, a growing body of evidence has shown the drug “not only ends the lives of preborn children but also poses significant dangers to mothers,” Thomas wrote.
He cited the Biden administration’s elimination of the in-person dispensing requirement, which “would seem likely to increase risks to women by removing the opportunity for professional assessment of factors such as the stage of pregnancy and whether it is ectopic, and by preventing meaningful follow-up. It also may make abortion drugs more readily exploited by abusers and human traffickers.”
Thomas concluded that the bill “would likely save lives by curtailing the incidence of chemical abortion itself and all of its associated risks to the mothers as well.”
The bishops’ support comes as mail-order chemical abortions continue to surge. The abortion pill accounted for 63% of all U.S. abortions in 2023, up from 53% in 2020. Shipments of abortion drugs from states with pro-abortion shield laws rose 26% from 72,000 in 2024 to 91,000 in 2025, bypassing pro-life state protections.
This week, Advancing American Freedom filed an amicus brief in the Missouri v. FDA case on behalf of itself and 37 other pro-life groups, urging the court to allow pro-life states to challenge the FDA’s safety changes.
“States’ pro-life laws protect both women and the unborn from the dangers of abortion. The abortionists’ campaign to frustrate the enforcement of state pro-life laws would not be possible had the FDA not dropped the in-person dispensing requirement for chemical abortion,” said AAF General Counsel J. Marc Wheat.
