DeGette, others call for House committee hearing on judge’s decision to revoke FDA approval of mifepristone

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, along with nearly two dozen Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter today to the chair of the committee, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), calling for an immediate hearing on the unprecedented decision by a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas to revoke FDA’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide.

Mifepristone has been approved for use by FDA for more than 22 years. The decision to stay the agency’s approval of a drug that’s used to perform nearly half of all abortions in the U.S. not only puts the health of millions of women at risk, but also threatens to undermine the nation’s entire drug approval process.

“As Members of the Committee of jurisdiction over FDA and our nation’s drug approval process, we have an important responsibility to review and consider any detrimental impacts or threats to FDA’s ‘Gold Standard’ of review,’” the lawmakers wrote. “Given the implications of this decision, we believe it is important for the Committee to hear from experts about how the outcome of this case attempts to undermine the drug approval process, restricts access to an FDA-approved medication, and places ideology, politics, and judicial activism above science.”

The letter comes on the heels of an amicus brief DeGette and others filed in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday urging the court to stay the judge’s decision before it’s scheduled to take effect on Friday, April 14.

In the letter sent to Republican leaders of the Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday, the lawmakers cited their deep concerns about the ongoing efforts to limit women’s access to reproductive health care across the nation, and the impact it’s having on people’s health.

“We have grave concerns about the ongoing attacks to reproductive health care in the United States, and the implications for those who seek abortion care following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned nearly 50 years of precedent protecting the Constitutional right to abortion,” the lawmakers continued. “Unfortunately, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine is one more example of ideologically driven litigation that is intended to restrict abortion access and block women from obtaining the care they need, while also turning back the clock on reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.”

The lawmakers pointed out that the court’s decision, if allowed to stand, could have significant long-term implications that undermine the nation’s public health agencies and prescription drug approval process.

“More than a dozen renowned food and drug law scholars have noted that the outcome in this case could ‘profoundly undermine the well-established statutory and regulatory framework for the approval of new drugs and the due process accorded to drug marketing application holders by statute,’” the lawmakers wrote. “These experts also emphasized that requiring FDA to withdraw the approval of mifepristone would ‘create harmful reverberations that would affect patients, health care providers, and the biopharmaceutical industry, all of whom rely on the expertise of FDA to make scientific determinations regarding the safety and effectiveness of our nation’s medical products.’ Given the breadth of these stakeholders and implications, it is critical that we hear from those impacted on the effects of this decision.”

In addition to DeGette, the letter was signed by U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Kathy Castor (D-FL), John P. Sarbanes (D-MD), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Tony Cárdenas (D-CA), Raul Ruiz, M.D. (D-CA), Scott H. Peters (D-CA), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Marc A. Veasey (D-TX), Annie Kuster (D-NH), Robin L. Kelly (D-IL), Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-CA), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Darren Soto (D-FL), Angie Craig (D-MN), Kim Schrier, M.D. (D-WA), Lori Trahan (D-MA), and Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX).

The full letter is available here.