FDA OKs generic abortion pill, riling the right

What happened

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a second generic version of mifepristone, the drug used in combination with misoprostol to carry out roughly two-thirds of U.S. abortions, drugmaker Evita Solutions announced Thursday. The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 and the first generic version in 2019.

Who said what

“Approval of a second generic is unlikely to affect access” to mifepristone, The Associated Press said, but the FDA’s quiet approval of Evita’s application “triggered pushback from anti-abortion groups and politicians aligned with the Trump administration.” Students for Life Action called the move “a stain on the Trump presidency and another sign that the deep state at the FDA must go.”

This was the “first significant pushback” President Donald Trump has gotten from his “otherwise loyal base of social conservatives,” The Washington Post said. Less than two weeks ago, anti-abortion activists celebrated a promise from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to review mifepristone’s safety. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said Thursday that “the FDA has very limited discretion in deciding whether to approve a generic drug.”

What next?

“I think the intelligent people in the pro-life movement don’t want to go to war with the administration,” a consultant for anti-abortion groups told the Post. “If you do something that embarrasses Trump and the HSS secretary and the high-profile people, then you wind up with Trump digging in his heels — and you don’t want that.” Evita said it expects its version of mifepristone to become available in January.

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