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# FDA ‘Not Serious’ About Mifepristone Review: GOP Senators
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-not-serious-about-mifepristone-review-gop-senators/
- Published: 2026-02-11T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T13:33:32.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5160650

Some Republican senators left a closed-door briefing by FDA commissioner **Marty Makary** on the agency’s review of the abortion drug mifepristone convinced that FDA is not taking the review seriously and Congress needs to act to ban the drug. *Politico* quotes Sen. **Josh Hawley** (R-MO) as [complaining](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/02/11/congress/bitter-pills-00775740?ref=fdaweb.com) that Makary failed to give a timeline for completing the review, explain what the audit will involve, and disclose whether it was even underway.

“I think that this safety study is a dead end,” Hawley told *Politico*. “I just think that FDA is not serious about it. I don’t think they’re proceeding with any sense of urgency whatsoever, if they’re really proceeding at all. I frankly can’t tell.”

Also complaining was Senate HELP Committee chair Sen. **Bill Cassidy** (R-LA), who organized the briefing for some of his colleagues. In a statement, he cited the “lack of progress on HHS and FDA’s promised safety study on these dangerous drugs.” He said the review was “moving too slowly” and found that “disappointing.”

*Politico* says it’s hard to tell what comes next since congressional Republicans have tried and failed to impose restrictions on the use of mifepristone. Hawley said he hadn’t decided whether to attempt to control the drug through the next appropriations process or through a standalone bill. “I don’t have confidence \[the FDA review\] is going to amount to anything,” he said. “My view is Congress now needs to get involved.”

HHS referred *Politico* to an earlier statement that said FDA “is taking care to do this study properly and in the right way. We are planning to complete the study as soon as possible while ensuring we are not cutting any corners from a scientific research standpoint,” the statement said, adding that such reviews often can take a year.

Conservative anti-abortion activists have expressed disappointment in the Trump administration for retaining Biden-era rules that expanded access to abortion drugs via mail and telemedicine and for approving a new generic version of mifepristone.