Dr. Jamila Perritt answers Hawley's "the science is clear" with the same phrase
Jamila PerrittObstetrician-gynecologist and president and chief executive of Physicians for Reproductive Health, in an organisational press release
Dr. Jamila Perritt, an obstetrician-gynecologist and president of Physicians for Reproductive Health, responded to Hawley's bill by stating that the scientific evidence establishes mifepristone as safe, effective and still medically indicated, using the same "the science is clear" construction Hawley had used to argue the opposite.
“the science is clear: mifepristone is safe, mifepristone is effective, and mifepristone is still medically indicated”
Official statement
Where this statement fits
Should Congress ban the abortion pill, mifepristone, as Josh Hawley has proposed?
On March 11, 2026, Senator Josh Hawley introduced the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act, which would withdraw the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone for pregnancy termination, make distributing and labeling the drug for that purpose violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and let women who say chemical abortion harmed them sue its manufacturers. Mifepristone has been approved in the United States since 2000 and is used in a large majority of American abortions. Hawley argues a national ban is the only remedy because the drug can be mailed into states whose own laws restrict abortion. The bill drew seven Republican cosponsors but has not moved out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. On September 16, 2026, Hawley unveiled a four-page "Declaration for Life" and began asking officeholders and candidates to sign it as a commitment to ban the drug. The dispute is over whether Congress should enact that ban.
Source and context
Official statement
About this source
The response from a national physicians' organization, answering Hawley's safety claim on clinical grounds. Perritt's phrasing deliberately mirrors Hawley's own "the science is clear" formulation from the bill announcement.
Before the quotation
Hawley had said the previous day that "the science is clear: the chemical abortion drug is inherently dangerous to women and prone to abuse."
After the quotation
PolitiFact later reported that more than 100 peer-reviewed studies support the FDA's assessment that serious complications occur in under 0.5 percent of cases.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Perritt rejects the clinical premise the ban rests on, in a statement her organisation issued expressly as a response to the bill. The closest competing label is “Challenged the characterization”, because on its face the sentence disputes a factual claim about the drug rather than addressing the legislation. That loses because the premise she rejects is the bill's sole stated justification, and the statement was issued as an objection to the bill; treating it as a narrow factual quarrel would understate a physicians' organisation's rejection of the proposal.
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- Josh Hawley
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The Dispute Index. "Dr. Jamila Perritt answers Hawley's "the science is clear" with the same phrase". First published: 2026-09-18. Last updated: 2026-09-22. https://disputeindex.com/events/1037-dr-jamila-perritt-an-obstetrician-gynecologist-and-president