Guttmacher's Blair Darney disputes Hawley's claim that mifepristone is almost wholly unregulated
Blair DarneyVice President for Domestic Research at the Guttmacher Institute, quoted by St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis Public Radio reported that Blair Darney, Vice President for Domestic Research at the Guttmacher Institute, called Hawley's claims that mifepristone is unregulated false. She said the Food and Drug Administration regulates all drugs and devices on the market in the U.S. and that mifepristone went through a rigorous process before it was approved in 2000.
“The Food and Drug Administration regulates all drugs and devices on the market in the U.S. Mifepristone went through this rigorous process before it was originally approved in 2000 ... so mifepristone has been a highly studied and highly regulated drug.”
Reporting
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
Reporting
About this source
St. Louis Public Radio report, published March 12, 2026, on Senator Josh Hawley's announcement of a bill to withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone, including responses from advocates and health providers.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
St. Louis Public Radio published the report the day after Hawley introduced his bill on March 11, 2026. It quotes Hawley as saying that earlier administrations removed almost all of the safety protocols around mifepristone, "such that today it is almost wholly unregulated." Darney is one of the advocates and health providers the report cites in response.
After the quotation
The report next cites the FDA's website, which it says states that further reviews have "not identified any new safety concerns" with mifepristone.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Relative to Hawley's proposal that Congress ban mifepristone, Darney is reported as calling his claims that the drug is unregulated false, and she says the FDA regulates all drugs and that mifepristone went through a rigorous process before its 2000 approval. In the words quoted she does not address the ban itself, so we labeled it Challenged the characterization rather than Condemned.
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The Dispute Index. "Guttmacher's Blair Darney disputes Hawley's claim that mifepristone is almost wholly unregulated". First published: 2026-09-26. Last updated: 2026-09-26. https://disputeindex.com/events/2853-st-louis-public-radio-reported-that-blair-darney