Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) and Congressman Pat Ryan (NY-18) introduced the Protecting Reproductive Freedom Act to reaffirm that mifepristone, also known as the abortion pill, was appropriately approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and that this approval preempts any state law seeking to prohibit or restrict access to the abortion pill. 

“More than 25 years ago, the FDA approved mifepristone as safe and effective,” said Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher.  "That science has not changed.  What has changed, however, is the relentless effort by anti-abortion activists to use the courts to do what they could not do legislatively: ban abortion across the country, one medication at a time. 

“The Protecting Reproductive Freedom Act makes clear that the FDA’s authority is real and that no state can override it to deny women access to reproductive freedom,” continued Congresswoman Fletcher.  “I am glad to introduce this important legislation with Congressman Pat Ryan, and I will continue fighting to protect reproductive freedom for women in Texas and across our country.”

“I risked my life in combat to protect fundamental American freedoms. That includes a woman’s right to choose.  These deeply personal and private medical decisions should be made by women, their health care providers, and their families, not by extremist judges or politicians,” said Congressman Pat Ryan.  “Mifepristone is a safe and effective medication that has been prescribed by doctors for more than two decades.  These efforts to undermine the safety of abortion medication have nothing to do with science or medicine and everything to do with radical groups whose only goal is a national abortion ban.  This legislation ensures we not only protect abortion access for women in New York and across the country but also the doctors who use telemedicine to prescribe medication abortion.”

Mifepristone was approved as safe and effective by the FDA in 2000.  Medication abortions account for more than 50 percent of the abortions performed in the United States.

The Protecting Reproductive Freedom Act has received endorsements from Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Reproductive Freedom For All. 

Congresswoman Fletcher is Vice Chair and Whip of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus and has led several efforts to protect access to abortion.  In the 117th Congress, her bill to protect the right to travel between states to obtain an abortion, the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, H.R. 8297, passed the House.  She is also an original cosponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which establishes a statutory federal right to abortion free from medically unnecessary restrictions.   

To view the full text of the bill, click here.