NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and two other Republican senators have written a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether the manufacturers of the abortion pill lied about its safety and efficacy.

“We write to you regarding a serious public-health failure that endangers countless American
women,” the letter reads.

Currently, two out of every three abortions in the U.S. are performed using Mifepristone and misoprostol, according to Planned Parenthood.

In the letter, lawmakers cite new data from the right-leaning think tank, the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), which analyzed insurance data from more than 865,000 insurance claims for medication abortion and found the drug is 22 times riskier than what the FDA label states, according to the EPPC.

However, a 2024 article by the American Medical Association (AMA) said hundreds of peer-reviewed studies and decades of research disprove claims that the abortion pill is dangerous, and instead show the drug has a safety profile similar to ibuprofen.

“Reimposing unnecessary limits on mifepristone, which is used in the two-drug protocol for medication abortion and miscarriage management­, will jeopardize public health and significantly worsen inequities in maternal health for people of color, those with low incomes, and those living in underserved communities,” the AMA report reads.

In the letter, Republican lawmakers accused the manufacturer of the abortion pill of potentially misrepresenting the pill’s safety and efficacy, and they questioned the criteria the FDA used to decide to loosen restrictions on the drug, including allowing patients to obtain it via telehealth in 2021.

Planned Parenthood representatives told News 2 the abortion pill is perfectly safe, and this push from Republicans could make it even harder for women to access the drug.

“For decades, hundreds of medical studies and reams of data are conclusive that mifepristone is safe and effective, and this effort by Marsha Blackburn to undermine the scientific evidence is a politically motivated attack on women’s health,” Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood Tennessee and Northern Mississippi, said. “Potentially, with this kind of interference in the scientific data and the FDA’s decision-making, advanced practice clinicians could be banned from dispensing medication abortion. This all adds up to hampering patients’ access to this medication, which is already restricted since there are a number of states, including Tennessee, where abortion is completely banned, and it can’t be dispensed at all here.”

Sen. Blackburn and the two other Republicans wrote in the letter the issue is not about politics, but about the health and safety of women.

“Hundreds of thousands of women are at risk of serious harm to their bodies by the FDA’s
continued recklessness around this drug,” they wrote.

News 2 reached out to Sen. Blackburn’s office for a statement, but had not heard back by the time this article was published.