Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced legislation on Wednesday that would revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone for abortion, staking out a more aggressive anti-abortion position as many Republicans aligned with President Donald Trump have preferred to avoid a new federal fight over abortion.
The measure, titled the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act, would bar the use of mifepristone for abortion, withdraw FDA approval for the drug, and classify its distribution for abortion as a violation of federal law.
Senator Hawley Hosts Pro-Life Press Conference, Makes Major Announcement https://t.co/ciJvGgAjEC
— Senator Hawley Press Office (@SenHawleyPress) March 11, 2026
“What the bill would do is it would bar the use of mifepristone for abortion. It would withdraw the FDA approval,” Hawley said at a Capitol Hill press conference. He also said the bill would give women who took the drug the ability to sue its manufacturers, Danco Laboratories.
During an hourlong press conference, four women offered their testimonies about their experience taking the drug, in some cases under pressure to do so by former boyfriends, and about how they were left without support from abortion providers when they experienced complications from the pill.
Hawley framed the legislation as a rebuke to what he described as congressional inaction on a drug that has become central to abortion access nationwide.
“It’s vital that we give these women the ability to go to court and be made whole,” Hawley said. “My hope is to gain 60 votes. This is something for Congress to do. Congress needs to act. There’s no excuse for Congress to offload its responsibilities onto other people. Rather than being a spectator, Congress needs to act.”
Hawley’s push stands out at a moment when many Republicans, including figures in the Trump administration, have shown little appetite for sweeping new federal abortion restrictions after the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the decision to the states.
Hawley, by contrast, is arguing that Congress has a direct role to play in regulating abortion drugs moving across state lines.
The bill builds on legislation Hawley rolled out last year that would have imposed stricter safeguards on mifepristone and opened the door for women to sue telehealth providers and pharmacies over complications.
At Wednesday’s event, Hawley repeatedly pointed to research from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which reviewed 865,727 insurance claims from 2017 through 2023 involving women who used mifepristone to terminate early pregnancies. He said the data showed serious adverse events in roughly 11% of cases, including infection, hemorrhaging, and other life-threatening complications.
Hawley also blamed former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden for loosening restrictions on the drug, especially through telehealth prescribing and mail distribution, which he argued made mifepristone both more widespread and more vulnerable to abuse.
Even as he pressed Congress to go further, Hawley gave Trump significant credit for the anti-abortion movement’s broader success, praising the president’s Supreme Court nominees for helping pave the way for Dobbs.
But his bill underscores the divide within the GOP over what comes next, with Hawley urging federal action while Trump and many other Republicans remain far more cautious about reopening the issue in Washington.
The renewed push comes after the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a 2024 challenge to the FDA’s actions on mifepristone, leaving the drug available while ruling only that the challengers lacked standing to sue.
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Erin Hawley, a senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom who is married to the senator, and ADF president Kristen Waggoner, also spoke at the event. ADF was the legal organization that helped lead the successful challenge resulting in the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
The Washington Examiner contacted a Danco representative.
