The News
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary said Thursday he has “no plans to take action” to restrict the availability of mifepristone, the pill used in most medication abortions in the US.
Speaking at the Semafor World Economy Summit, Makary took a firmer stance on the issue than he did in his Senate confirmation hearing last month, when he said he would “do a review of the data” and didn’t commit to specific action — leading some to wonder whether the Donald Trump administration would ultimately move to roll back access to the pill.
At the summit, though, Makary still left the door open to future action on the medication.
“There is an ongoing set of data that is coming into the FDA on mifepristone,” he said. “So if the data suggests something or tells us that there’s a real signal, we can’t promise we’re not going to act on that data.”
The FDA considers mifepristone safe and effective.
After the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, some Republicans have moved to crack down on the pill, which some people have accessed through telemedicine even in states with abortion bans.
Following Makary’s comments at the summit, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley — whose wife argued a Supreme Court case against the pill — said the remarks were “exceptionally disappointing to say the least. Not a good beginning at the FDA.”
The Semafor View
The boundaryless pools of money that defined finance in the last 20 years are retreating, and capital is becoming a national resource to be protected. Public and private markets seem set to converge: Where they meet — and which firms stake out territory — could determine finance’s winners over the next decade.