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Health Care

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The Big Story

Students for Life: Abortion pill review ‘must go back to the beginning’

Anti-abortion advocates aren’t satisfied with how the Trump administration is conducting its safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone.

Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins is sending letters to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Environmental Protection Agency.

In drafts shown exclusively to The Hill, Hawkins warned officials that the review will fail unless federal regulators conduct their own research and don’t look to previous studies, which have repeatedly found the drug to be safe and effective when taken as prescribed.

“Even if you wanted to accept past studies, Chemical Abortion Pills today are distributed on an unprecedent scale that conservatively results in more than 50 tons of chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains being flushed into America’s waterways each year,” wrote Hawkins.

She asked to know who at the agencies will be conducting the review.

“Deep state agendas will likely taint the outcomes,” Hawkins warned.

The push follows a letter to red state attorneys general from top health officials promising a safety review of mifepristone, which has been on the market for 25 years.

In letters to Republicans attorneys general last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the agency would be reviewing mifepristone due to “recent studies raising concerns about the safety of mifepristone as currently administered.”

During the 2024 presidential campaign, the organization discussed two main issues with Trump officials; ending federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, and ending support and distribution of mifepristone.

Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, we’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Essential Reads

How policy will be impacting the health care sector this week and beyond:

Trump delays threatened 100 percent tariffs on drugs

The Trump administration is holding off on its threatened 100 percent tariffs on drugmakers that aren’t building facilities in the U.S., with officials saying the new tax is still being prepared. President Trump said on his Truth Social platform last week that, “Starting October 1st, 2025, we will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product,” unless the drugmaker is in the process …

Full Story

Federal judge keeps alive red state lawsuit against mifepristone

A Texas federal judge late Tuesday declined to dismiss a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration seeking to sharply restrict the abortion pill mifepristone, instead transferring the case to Missouri and keeping the effort alive. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that Idaho, Missouri and Kansas — which were not the original plaintiffs — have no ties to Amarillo, Texas, where the original lawsuit was …

Full Story

Ocasio-Cortez on shutdown: ‘They want us to blink first’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called on Democrats not to fold on their health insurance demands before true negotiations begin to reopen the government. “They want us to blink first, and we have too much to save. Protecting people is too important a task for us to give up before anything even starts,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview Tuesday night on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes.” Asked about the “rising sense …

Full Story

On Our Radar

Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:

As of writing, the Senate doesn’t seem any nearer to reopening the federal government. The Hill is keeping watch on the latest developments on the government shutdown. Lawmakers have left for Yom Kippur, meaning the shutdown will persist until at least Friday.

In Other News

Branch out with a different read:

Health insurance costs for 22 million in limbo as shutdown begins

As the first government shutdown since 2019 begins, GOP leaders insist any talk of extending COVID-era enhanced subsidies for ObamaCare plans won’t happen until at least mid-November. “We are not going to be held hostage for over $1 trillion in new spending on a continuing resolution,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Tuesday. But insurance experts agree: If Republicans have their way, millions of …

Full Story

Around the Nation

Local and state headlines on health care:

New Mexico health official hopes special session will help ‘bulletproof’ vaccine policy (Source New Mexico)
60,000 West Virginians risk losing affordable health care as Congress stalls on subsidies (Mountain State Spotlight)
Idaho kids lost health insurance at record rates from 2022 to 2024, report finds (Idaho Capital Sun)

What We’re Reading

Health news we’ve flagged from other outlets:

People are talking to this AI startup’s cartoon panda as if it’s a therapist. The CEO is nervous because there’s no suicide prevention design (Fortune)
Insurers spend big to save Obamacare subsidies at center of shutdown fight (Bloomberg)
Will the White House drug-pricing deal lower costs for Americans? Experts are skeptical (Stat)