Jan 22, 2026 / 15:59 pm
Live Action has sent an urgent memo to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging him to take the chemical abortion drug mifepristone off the market after an investigative report revealed extensive noncompliance with safety regulations.
The leading pro-life organization showcased a new investigative video at a press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday morning about Planned Parenthood’s routine violations of safety regulations in its distribution of the chemical abortion drug.
The investigative video and accompanying letter show Planned Parenthood’s failure to consistently confirm the gestational age of unborn children before distributing chemical abortion pills, as well as its failure to screen for ectopic pregnancy, placing pregnant women at risk of severe hemorrhaging and even death.
“We’re here to call on the administration and the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] to remove these lethal drugs from the market,” Live Action President Lila Rose said at the press conference. “They don’t belong on our market; they don’t belong flooding the homes of American families, destroying the lives of American children and harming and sometimes killing American women.”
Chemical abortion drugs “were illegally fast-tracked under the Clinton administration,” Rose said. “There have been regulations that have been stripped away over the years, and now we are dealing with mass death on demand being sent via our postal mail system, and it must end.”
“Mifepristone, used as an abortive agent, should no longer be allowed in the United States if our FDA wants to do its job in protecting the American people and protecting American children,” she said.
Live Action’s letter, sent to Kennedy as well as FDA Commissioner Marty Makary immediately following the Capitol Hill briefing, states that about 7.5 million unborn babies have died as a result of the chemical abortion drug since its approval in 2000.
The group’s investigation found several instances of Planned Parenthood staff failing to verify gestational age or provide ultrasounds before distribution of the chemical abortion drug. The abortion giant also dispensed the pills without screening or follow-up care, and staff were also recorded in multiple instances “minimizing potential risks and treating key safeguards as optional or secondary in the provision of abortion pills.”
The Live Action letter also reveals that Planned Parenthood staff repeatedly failed to check Rh status and were caught sending abortion pills to fraudulent addresses in order to circumvent parental notice. Staff also failed to require a medical history before distributing the drugs or to provide transparent information about symptoms, downplaying the amount of bleeding that could occur when taking the drug as well as symptoms that mimic labor.
“Planned Parenthood even says that taking the abortion pill is safer for the mother than ‘carrying to term,’” the letter states.
Live Action cited research by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) in its letter, which found that “10.93% of women experienced sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days of taking mifepristone — an adverse event rate at least 22 times higher than the ‘less than 0.5%’ rate reported in the FDA‑approved clinical trials.”
EPPC President Ryan Anderson also delivered remarks at the press conference, urging the Trump administration to review his organization’s report, stating “FDA data is decades old” and is based on clinical studies with “an ideal parent under ideal conditions.”
“Our data is from the real world,” he said.
Several members of Congress attended the briefing, including Reps. Michael Cloud, R-Texas; Mark Harris, R-North Carolina; Troy Downing, R-Montana; Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas; and Andy Biggs, R-Arizona.
Other speakers included abortion pill reversal protocol developer George Delgado and former Planned Parenthood clinic director Mayra Rodríguez.
“Today’s press conference and the release of this investigative video make clear that this issue warrants immediate and thorough review and action,” the letter stated. “Live Action requests that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration reevaluate the approval and current regulatory status of mifepristone, strengthen transparency and data collection, and remove this dangerous drug from the market.”
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