Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, warned May 10 that mifepristone poses serious risks to women and criticized Biden-era Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policies allowing the abortion drug to be prescribed by telemedicine and sent by mail.
In an interview with Ryan Schmelz on LiveNOW From Fox, Smith called mifepristone “baby poison,” explaining that when a woman takes the drug, it “starves the baby to death.” He said what is “largely unknown” is that mifepristone is also “very dangerous to women.”
Smith cited a 2025 Ethics and Public Policy Center study that analyzed insurance data from more than 865,000 mifepristone abortions. The study found that about one in 11 women, or 10.93%, experience serious adverse events within 45 days of taking the drug, including sepsis requiring hospitalization and severe hemorrhaging that could lead to death.
“Out of an abundance of concern for women's lives, this thing needs to be stopped immediately,” Smith said, “because women are dying, and again these things don’t get reported normally.”
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Smith argued that the current FDA policies on the drug bypass medical oversight, increase risks as pregnancies advance, and fail to screen for ectopic pregnancies or coercion. He also cited cases in which women were allegedly forced to take the drug and argued that the policy violates the Comstock Act, which restricts the mailing of abortion-related items.
Smith urged the Supreme Court to uphold a federal appeals court ruling that would restore an in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone nationwide, arguing that mail-order policies undermine state laws restricting abortion.
“Louisiana, Texas, Florida — all these wonderful state legislatures and governors who have protected the life of their unborn children are having those laws undermined,” Smith said. “The cover-up of the abortion pill, mifepristone, has to end, and it has to end now. At a minimum, the mail-order ‘big business’ has to end.”
His comments come as more than 100 Republican lawmakers, including Smith, filed an amicus brief supporting Louisiana’s effort to restore stricter limits on mifepristone distribution.
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As Zeale News previously reported, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 1 sided with Louisiana, issuing a directive that would have reinstated in-person dispensing requirements nationwide. The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily paused that ruling May 4 after two mifepristone manufacturers filed emergency requests asking the high court to intervene. On May 11, Justice Samuel Alito extended the stay until at least 5 p.m. May 14, keeping mifepristone available by mail and without an in-person doctor visit for now.
Smith said his “hope and prayer” is that the Supreme Court “just follows the science.”
“I think the Supreme Court will say that, one, [mifepristone] enables coercion against women. Secondly, it’s violated the Comstock Act,” Smith said. “But then, most importantly, are the dangers to women. We’ve been talking about the dangers to the baby for years. We were pretty much unaware of how dangerous this particular baby poison was to the women. It's women poison as well.”