RFK Jr. ignores 100+ studies to push abortion pill ban—this is the mifepristone explainer you need

By Bonnie Fuller

Apprehensive OB-GYNs across the country are alerting Americans that Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may withdraw abortion pill mifepristone from the market. The threat follows the publication of a discredited study on mifepristone by a Project 2025 “think tank.” Medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have called the report “seriously flawed” and accused it of manipulating data. So why would RFK Jr. believe it?

Here’s what you need to know.

First, the science. What is mifepristone?

Mifepristone, which is used with the drug misoprostol for abortion and miscarriage care, was approved by the FDA in 2000 for use in a safe two-pill medication abortion regimen. 

A multitude of studies have shown mifepristone to be safer than penicillin and Viagra, but anti-abortion groups that oppose medication abortion are lobbying the Trump administration to remove it from the market.

Today, 63% of abortions in the country are done by women using the two-pill regimen in the privacy of their own homes. That’s up from 53% in 2020.

In the wake of the Supreme Court case overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022, and the enactment of extreme abortion bans and restrictions in 20 states, the number of US abortions has increased—jumping from 1.05 million in 2023 to 1.14 million in 2024. Access to abortion pills has been central to these rising statistics. 

What’s the deal with the discredited study?

A report by a right-wing “think tank” called the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) prompted RFK Jr. to tell a Senate committee last May that he would use taxpayer dollars to carry out a “complete review” of the highly safe and reliable drug mifepristone.

There are some important things to know about the Ethics and Public Policy Center: 

1. At least eight associates of the EPPC authored or contributed to Project 2025. High on Project 2025’s list? Revoking FDA approval of mifepristone. 
2. One EPPC board member is the avowed anti-abortion crusader Leonard Leo, who is also co-chairman of the Federalist Society’s Board of Directors. The Federalist Society advised Trump on his Supreme Court justice nominees, recommending judges Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. It was those three Trump appointees, along with Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Chief Justice John Roberts, who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Thomas and Alito are themselves members of the Federalist Society. 
3. The EPPC has been accused of manipulating data to make their ideological claims seem accurate.

The EPPC’s so-called “study” on mifepristone produced results that were wildly different from more than 100 previous medical studies conducted by medical and scientific researchers over 30 years. Those 100+ studies concluded that 99% of pregnant women who used mifepristone to have an abortion had no serious complications. 

By contrast, the EPPC’s study determined that 11% of women experienced serious complications from mifepristone. 

Here’s what to know about the EPPC’s study:

• It uses private health insurance claims—which it purchased from a data seller—to produce its findings.
• It fails to disclose the source of its data, making independent verification impossible.
• It counts unrelated conditions, such as ectopic pregnancies—a totally unrelated issue—as an adverse event caused by mifepristone.
• It includes normal post-abortion symptoms—like cramps—as serious complications.
• It was self-published.
• It did not undergo peer review.
• It has been called “junk science,” “flawed,“ “distorted,” and “not transparent,” according to the president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

What do doctors say?

OB-GYNs and family practice doctors interviewed by COURIER now expect that RFK Jr.’s “review” will be the first step in a plan to eliminate mifepristone use in the US.

“This is meant to take things away from us purely for political reasons,” charges Dr. Kristin Lyerly, a Wisconsin OB-GYN who also practices across the state border in rural Minnesota. “Mifepristone is incredibly safe, incredibly well-studied. We have years and years of data from the US and beyond.”

“There’s even more data from outside the United States, where they don’t have this political interference. Mifepristone is safe, it’s effective. It is necessary, and RFK Jr. has no business re-examining this data just to take away effective treatment from my patients.” 

Dr. Lou Rubino agrees. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility that (RFK Jr.) will do what he does with other things, which is ignore the science,” says Rubino, Medical Director at Meadow Reproductive Health and Wellness in Virginia. “That seems to be something this administration does repeatedly.”

Dr. Alhambra Frarey, Chief Medical Officer at Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, is appalled by RFK Jr.’s “safety review” of mifepristone. She asserts that it is “absolutely clear that RFK Jr. is not interested in promoting the health and safety of Americans.”

“Instead he is trying to promote the anti-abortion agenda to continue to threaten access to what is, in fact, life-saving and effective medications for abortion.”

Dr. Lyerly says she’s disgusted that RFK Jr. is bending to political pressures from anti-abortion organizations at the expense of pregnant Americans’ health.

Kennedy “is not a scientist and is entirely political. It’s hard to watch someone with such an important role in this country, who is in charge of some of the most vulnerable people in this country, have a complete lack of respect for the things we hold dear,” Lyerley said.

“Their health care, their lives, and their families. And here he is as the nation’s highest health officer.”

This is opening the door to worse.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, plans to pour millions of dollars into House and Senate races in the 2026 midterms, in hopes of securing a “trifecta of pro-life administration, House and Senate.”

That’s a complete reversal from what voters have said they want. Since Roe was reversed in 2022, voters in every state with an abortion protection measure on its ballot have overwhelmingly passed it, enshrining the right to abortion into their state constitution—even in deep red states like Kansas, Kentucky, and Ohio. 

Related: Women and doctors on latest abortion restrictions: Get out