FDA mifepristone safety review reportedly to finish by September

The Daily Signal reported on June 25, 2026, that members of Congress were told the FDA's safety review of mifepristone — the abortion pill used in more than 60% of U.S. abortions — could be completed by September 2026. The report, cited by multiple outlets including Oregon Right to Life and Daily Citizen, originates from a lawmaker's comment to the conservative Daily Signal, not from Breitbart. This review, announced under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., comes despite the FDA's own postmarketing data showing no new safety concerns since the drug's approval. Bloomberg has reported that FDA Commissioner Marty Makary may be slow-walking the review to delay any action past the 2026 midterm elections, signaling a political rather than scientific motivation.

It's important to clarify the legal timeline: the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone was permanently eliminated by the FDA in January 2023 under the Biden administration. In June 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine that the anti-abortion groups challenging the FDA's decisions lacked standing, thus dismissing the case without altering the in-person dispensing rule. There was no Supreme Court action in 2023 temporarily blocking in-person dispensing; the conflation with a 2026 Fifth Circuit ruling (that was eventually overturned) is incorrect. If the current review leads to reinstating in-person dispensing or other restrictions, it would effectively reimpose a burden the FDA itself removed three years ago, undermining access for millions, especially in rural areas and states with few abortion clinics. The Project 2025 playbook explicitly calls for enforcing criminal prohibitions under the Comstock Act against mailing abortion pills, making this review a key step in a broader assault on reproductive rights.