Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is citing a complex statute to defend his department against conservative pushback against the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a new abortion pill, saying that the agency’s hands are tied by the law when approving generics.

President Donald Trump’s health appointees drew ire from anti-abortion Republicans this week because the FDA, under Commissioner Marty Makary, approved a second generic version of the abortifacient mifepristone, which is used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States.

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