Blair G. Darney is a reproductive health services researcher and vice president for domestic research at the Guttmacher Institute. She holds appointments at Oregon Health & Science University's School of Medicine and Mexico's National Institute of Public Health, and is editor-in-chief of the journal Contraception. Her research covers abortion, contraception and health care delivery in the United States and Mexico. Darney earned a PhD in health services research from the University of Washington and an MPH in global health from Yale University. She served in the Peace Corps in Senegal and held a Fulbright-Garcia Robles fellowship in Mexico. She has served on the boards of the Society of Family Planning and CISIDAT, a Mexican health research organization.
Role at the time: Vice President for Domestic Research at the Guttmacher Institute, quoted by St. Louis Public Radio
Challenged the characterization
Statement summary
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.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Josh Hawley calls on Congress to ban abortion pill mifepristone · St. Louis Public RadioParagraphs on Blair Darney, after the passage on advocates and health providers
Why we used 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.
Senator Josh Hawley wants Congress to revoke the FDA's approval of mifepristone and ban the abortion pill nationally. His bill has stalled in committee, and in September he began pressing Republicans to sign a pledge backing it.
