Senator Murray Slams Republicans for Sham HELP Committee Hearing to Discredit Medication Abortion: “We All Know This Hearing is Not About Safety—It’s About Banning Abortion[...]

Murray presses Republican witness on efforts to weaponize environmental laws to ban mifepristone, anti-abortion group talking point that "people need to understand that they are likely drinking other people's abortions"-Murray: "That is insane. That comment is insane."

Senator Murray: "This hearing is not about the actual science or the facts-and it's certainly not about what is best for women's health. This hearing is really about the fact that Trump and his anti-abortion allies want to ban abortion nationwide and medication abortion is the most common method of abortion in the U.S."

NYT THIS WEEK: F.D.A. Decisions on Abortion Pill Were Based on Science, New Analysis Finds

ICYMI: Murray Leads Entire Senate Democratic Caucus in Demanding Answers from Trump Admin on New "Review" of Mifepristone Despite Decades of Evidence Proving its Safety & Efficacy

***WATCH: Senator Murray's opening remarks***

***WATCH: Senator Murray's Q&A with witnesses***

Washington, D.C. - Today, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing deceptively entitled, "Protecting Women: Exposing the Dangers of Chemical Abortion Drugs," Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the HELP Committee, drove home the facts about mifepristone-an FDA-approved medication used in medication abortion-and slammed Republicans for their sham partisan effort to sow doubt about the established safety record of mifepristone as part of their crusade to rip away access to medication abortion and ban abortion nationwide.

Mifepristone has been approved by the FDA since 2000 and has been used safely by more than 7.5 million people in the U.S. since then. Mifepristone is one of the most rigorously studied medications; it has been proven safe and effective in more than one hundred rigorous studies over the past few decades. Medication abortion using mifepristone accounts for the vast majority-nearly two-thirds-of all abortions in the United States since the Dobbs decision. Mifepristone is approved in at least 100 countries and used widely around the world.

According to leading medical organizations and the FDA itself, serious complications from mifepristone are "extremely rare." Additionally, FDA already imposes extremely burdensome restrictions on mifepristone that are unsupported given the drug's safety profile-restrictions leading medical organizations have long advocated for the removal of. On October 30, 2025, a federal court ruled in Purcell v. Kennedy that the FDA's explanation for the current restrictions on mifepristone is unsupported and illogical, that FDA ignored peer-reviewed research showing that mifepristone is extremely safe when regulated like other prescription drugs, and that the FDA's restrictions significantly reduce patient access.

Two-thirds of U.S. adults oppose banning medication abortion. The overwhelming majority of Americans don't want abortion legislated at all.

Witnesses at the hearing were: Attorney General of Louisiana Elizabeth Murrill; Dr. Monique Chireau Wubbenhorst, a member of the anti-abortion group AAPLOG; and Dr. Nisha Verma, a practicing OBGYN in Massachusetts and Georgia and a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health.

In opening comments, Senator Muray said:

"The fact of the matter is: medication abortion is safe and effective, and we have known that for a very long time. FDA had the data to prove this when they first approved mifepristone twenty-five years ago, and its safety was reaffirmed when FDA approved a generic version this last fall.

"We have a tremendous amount of data showing how safe this medication is. More than 160 high-quality studies have been conducted, and millions of women around the world use mifepristone safely every year with fewer complications than Viagra or penicillin.

"The fact of the matter is, mifepristone is one of the most studied medications we have. It's also one of the most restricted, despite its impressive safety profile. In fact, in October, a federal court ruled that FDA's current restrictions on mifepristone are illogical and unsupported by the evidence.

"The only reason mifepristone is regulated as heavily as it already is, is because of anti-abortion politics, not because of science. And now Republicans are holding this hearing to peddle debunked junk 'studies' by anti-abortion organizations which have no credibility and have been forcefully condemned by actual medical organizations, to justify reinstating more burdensome requirements and ultimately ripping medication abortion off the shelves entirely.

"We all know this hearing is not about the actual science or the facts-and it's certainly not about what is best for women's health. This hearing is really about the fact that Trump and his anti-abortion allies want to ban abortion nationwide and medication abortion is the most common method of abortion in the U.S.

"Republicans are furious that despite their extreme abortion bans some women are still finding ways to get the care that they need. And they want to put a stop to it-whatever it takes. Of course, the overwhelming majority of people in this country do not want medication abortion ripped away. And they do not want Republicans legislating their pregnancies. And I think most people are going to see right through the utter BS that is being staged here today.

"I also have to say: I am stunned-that Republicans found time to hold this sham hearing, when they have yet to have held any sort of hearing holding RFK Jr. to account for undermining access to safe and effective vaccines and letting deadly diseases like measles and whooping cough rip through our communities.

"Wasn't he supposed to be here quarterly? Wasn't he supposed to leave the vaccine schedule alone? And isn't this Committee supposed to be conducting oversight? It seems we will have a hearing on literally, anything but that."

[GOP LIES ABOUT COERCION]

Senator Murray began by asking, "One talking point that we're hearing a lot from anti-choice extremists has to do with coercion-that current regulations allowing telemedicine prescribing and dispensing somehow 'empower abusers,' as opposed to empowering, say, the hundreds of thousands of women who seek out care that way every year."

"Dr. Verma, which is the problem in this scenario: is it the availability of a safe and effective drug for abortion care, or is it people who abuse or coerce women?"

Dr. Verma replied in part, "We know that abortion care and telehealth care actually helps protect people having all of their options helps protect people. We've seen in the data that for people that are in abusive relationships, that are denied needed abortions, they're more likely to stay in those abusive relationships and put themselves and their families and children at risk. What we need here is real solutions to support people in these relationships and people that are being coerced. Restricting care further is not a real solution-it is a distraction."

Senator Murray continued, "I'm really tired of Republicans pretending they care about 'protecting women'-when all they mean is taking away women's ability to make decisions about their own bodies."

"If they really cared about 'protecting women': they would care about the fact that this Administration refused to release the Epstein files without an Act of Congress, or they wouldn't cut grants for crime victims' services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, they'd actually care about the fact that this Administration has elevated people who shield alleged sex traffickers like Andrew Tate. And they certainly wouldn't be trying to force rape victims to stay pregnant no matter what."

[MIFEPRISTONE IN THE WATER]

Senator Murray continued her questioning by addressing the push by anti-abortion groups and Republicans in Congress to weaponize environmental laws to restrict medication abortion. In June, Senator Lankford (R-OK) led other Senate and House Republicans in a letter urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate the environmental risks of mifepristone, without any factual basis. In December, Students for Life of America-an influential anti-abortion group-launched a campaign to rally its supporters to flood Trump's EPA to add mifepristone to a list of drinking water contaminants tracked by public utilities.

"Anti-abortion groups have shown time and again that they will try anything to rip away access to medication abortion, including, actually in recent years, pushing this absurd lie that mifepristone is somehow 'poisoning our water supply,'" Senator Murray said. "They absurdly claim that when people self-manage abortions at home, they're somehow contaminating the environment. This is crazy. The head of policy for the anti-abortion group Students for Life told Politico last year, 'People need to understand that they are likely drinking other people's abortions.'"

Senator Murray asked Dr. Wubbenhorst, "Do you agree that that's the case?"

Dr. Wubbenhorst replied in part, "I don't really feel qualified to speak on this issue, because I do think that there are other products that are disposed of in wastewater-miscarriages are, menstrual hygiene products are. I do think that it is highly problematic that a woman who received an abortion drug goes back and delivers her baby in the toilet, in her dorm room, shower, wherever it is."

"That is insane," Senator Murray replied. "That comment is insane. We all know that the push to use environmental laws to rip away mifepristone is not about the environment. The head of policy for Students for Life literally described it as, 'using the devil's own tools against them.'

"People need to understand that right now, anti-abortion groups are pushing invasive and dehumanizing laws to block women-in states where abortion is legal-from getting the care in the privacy of their own homes. Republicans need to stop this and I am just appalled that this is where they are going."

Senator Murray leads the Democratic caucus on reproductive health care issues, and she has led the fight in Congress to protect and expand access to mifepristone. Senator Murray led the Congressional response to FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a lawsuit brought by Republican anti-abortion extremists trying to rip away access to mifepristone-Murray led multiple amicus briefs, organized her colleagues, and raised the alarm at every turn. In June 2024, the Supreme Court dismissed the case on standing, but Murray made clear that "the nationwide threat to medication abortion has not gone away-far from it. If Donald Trump and his anti-abortion allies return to power, they will do everything they can to rip away access to mifepristone and ban abortion nationwide." Senator Murray has grilled Trump's FDA Commissioner, Marty Makary, on access to mifepristone at every opportunity she's had-including at a HELP Committee hearing on his nomination in March, and an Appropriations Agriculture-FDA subcommittee hearing in May. In 2023, Senator Murray pressed national pharmacies including Costco to ensure access to mifepristone, and in August, when Costco announced it would no longer sell mifepristone at its stores, Murray spoke out to demand they reverse course. In November, Senator Murray led the entire Senate Democratic caucus in a letter to HHS Secretary Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Makary expressing alarm over the Trump administration's plans to conduct "its own review of the evidence" on the safety and effectiveness of mifepristone. Murray's letter laid into the recent junk science "report" on mifepristone put out by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC)-an avowedly anti-abortion think tank-that appears to be the basis for the Trump administration's announced review of mifepristone. "By elevating the sham EPPC report as rationale for restricting access to mifepristone, HHS is blatantly undermining well-established science and weaponizing disinformation to fit the Trump administration's clear agenda to cut off abortion access in any way possible," Murray and the senators wrote.

Throughout her career, Murray has beat back countless Republican attacks on reproductive care and other family planning services-and she is widely credited with successfully pushing the Bush administration's FDA to follow the science and make Plan B available over the counter.

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