Senators’ Questions About Mifepristone Could Further Spread Confusion About the Abortion Pill’s Safety Record
Despite mifepristone’s 25-year safety record, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on Wednesday framed as an inquiry into the abortion pill’s safety. Statements, including from Committee Chair Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), described mifepristone as putting women in “serious danger,” despite no changes to the underlying evidence supporting the medication’s safety. KFF polling has shown that public views of mifepristone are sensitive to public and political conversations around the medication. Public awareness of mifepristone has increased substantially in recent years amidst the overturning of Roe v. Wade and several high-profile Supreme Court cases related to medication abortion, rising from about one in five adults who had heard of the pill in 2019 to over half in 2025. While recent attention may have led to increased awareness, misinformation and flawed research circulated in these debates may have also led to a decline in the public’s confidence in the pill’s safety.
Mifepristone was approved by the FDA over 25 years ago and has since been used as a safe and effective medication to help end early pregnancies and manage miscarriages. Its safety record is well established, and a recent review of FDA internal documents found that the agency’s continued approval of mifepristone and expansion of telehealth has been grounded in scientific evidence rather than political considerations. The scientific evidence has remained consistent, suggesting that shifts in the public’s perception are influenced by the political and legal scrutiny of the medication rather than recent developments in the medication’s safety record.
For example, a majority of adults (55%) in May 2023 considered the medication safe when taken as directed. Since then, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated at his Senate confirmation hearing that he intended to review the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, and in September 2025 announced that he had asked FDA Commissioner Makary to conduct an official review. By November 2025, perception of the pill’s safety had declined. About four in ten (42%) now say that abortion pills are safe when taken as directed, a decline of 13 percentage points from two years ago. At the same time, there have been increases in the shares saying abortion pills are “unsafe” (18% now, up from 9% in 2023) and that they are “not sure” (40% now, up from 35% in 2023). By suggesting mifepristone poses a danger to women who use it, anti-abortion senators are likely to create more confusion that could further erode the public’s confidence in the abortion pill despite its decades-long safety record.
Despite growing uncertainty about the pill’s safety among the public, two-thirds of U.S. adults continue to oppose policies that would limit access to or criminalize medication abortion. However, hearings like Wednesday’s, which focus on supposed safety concerns, have the potential to increase confusion among the public and shape how people understand and navigate medical care, as well as which policies they support.