Fox “straight news” anchor spreads anti-abortion misinformation that FDA-approved medication, mifepristone was rushed to approval and is dangerous
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
As Maggie Koerth and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux wrote for 538:
Despite the name, the accelerated approval process was used to subject mifepristone to heavier regulation and more monitoring after it was approved. It certainly did not speed up approval. From start to finish, approving mifepristone took 54 months. The average length of the process for all other drugs approved in 2000 was 15.6 months.
Citation From the April 23, 2023, edition of Fox News' Fox News Sunday
SHANNON BREAM (FOX NEWS SUNDAY ANCHOR): Quickly, I want to ask you about the Supreme Court leaving mifepristone, the abortion pill, on the market while the legal fight about it plays out. I want to read you something from a pro-life OB-GYN who wrote about this battle and the fact that she says the FDA has ignored safety issues with the pill. She says this: "It fast-tracked the abortion pill using its accelerated drug approval authority, ludicrously designating pregnancy as a quote 'serious or life-threatening illness.'" She says "as many as 7% of women that use abortion pills early in pregnancy need follow-up surgery, up to 15% will hemorrhage and 2% will have an infection." So, why shouldn't that not be part of the conversation, legal and otherwise? Shouldn't the FDA's number one priority be patient safety?
REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): The number one priority of the FDA needs to be about patient safety. I don't think the Supreme Court — and I think they made that clear this week — you had conservative justices joining with others that sent it back to the courts and have said let the FDA do their job. You know, I think a lot of people don't understand what they wanted to do was ban a drug that also is used in Cushing's syndrome. I was a woman that suffered from endometriosis and was trying to get pregnant. It helps fibroid urine endometriosis.