[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1285 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1285
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that over 25 years
of real-world evidence and hundreds of peer-reviewed studies proving
that mifepristone is safe and effective should be respected, and law
and policy governing access to lifesaving, time-sensitive medication
abortion care in the United States should be equitable, transparent,
and based on the best available peer-reviewed evidence-based science.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 14, 2026
Ms. DeGette (for herself, Ms. Pressley, Ms. McClellan, Ms. Clark of
Massachusetts, Mr. Bell, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Ms.
Velazquez, Mr. Moulton, Ms. Pettersen, Ms. Norton, Ms. Balint, and Ms.
Dexter) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that over 25 years
of real-world evidence and hundreds of peer-reviewed studies proving
that mifepristone is safe and effective should be respected, and law
and policy governing access to lifesaving, time-sensitive medication
abortion care in the United States should be equitable, transparent,
and based on the best available peer-reviewed evidence-based science.
Whereas Congress, by enacting the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 301 et seq.), authorized the Food and Drug Administration (in
this preamble referred to as the ``FDA'') to determine, based on the
scientific evidence, whether a drug is safe and effective for the
intended use of the drug;
Whereas Congress authorized the FDA to impose or maintain a Risk Evaluation and
Mitigation Strategy (in this preamble referred to as ``REMS'') for a
drug only where ``necessary to ensure that the benefits of the drug
outweigh the risks of the drug'' considering certain statutorily
enumerated factors;
Whereas Congress prohibited the FDA from imposing or maintaining an Element to
Assure Safe Use (in this preamble referred to as ``ETASU'') within a
REMS program if, inter alia, the ETASU is ``unduly burdensome on patient
access,'' considering in particular ``patients who have difficulty
accessing health care'';
Whereas mifepristone is a medication recommended by leading medical authorities
for its FDA-approved use to terminate a pregnancy and for its off-label
use to manage miscarriage;
Whereas mifepristone received approval from the FDA more than 25 years ago, and
according to the FDA, the ``efficacy and safety have become well-
established by both research and experience, and serious complications
have proven to be extremely rare'';
Whereas the FDA approved mifepristone following a rigorous 54-month review
period that included the review of 3 complete phases of clinical trials
that involved thousands of participants and that showed mifepristone was
safe and effective for termination of an early pregnancy;
Whereas, despite mifepristone's exceptional safety record, the FDA still
regulates this medication more heavily than 99 percent of prescription
drugs;
Whereas, in December 2021, after an extensive review of high-quality research
and years of real-world data confirming that mifepristone remains just
as safe when patients can fill their prescription by mail or at a
pharmacy, the FDA concluded that the mifepristone REMS should be
modified to lessen the burdens on patient access and the health care
system and, in January 2023, approved this modification to the REMS that
removed the in-person dispensing ETASU and added a pharmacy
certification ETASU, allowing Mifeprex and its approved generics to be
dispensed by certified pharmacies, both in-person and by mail, as well
as by or under the supervision of certified prescribers;
Whereas numerous peer-reviewed studies since January 2023 have further
established that mifepristone remains highly safe and effective;
Whereas mifepristone is more accessible when dispensed to eligible patients by
mail or at a pharmacy after clinical evaluation and counseling through
telemedicine;
Whereas few drugs have been studied so extensively after their FDA approval and
few hold such an explicit and convincing safety record as mifepristone;
Whereas leading medical and scientific organizations, including the World Health
Organization, the American Medical Association, the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Family
Physicians, the Society of Family Planning, and the Society for
Maternal-Fetal Medicine, recognize that mifepristone is safe and
effective, including when prescribed through telemedicine and dispensed
to eligible patients by mail or at a pharmacy, and continue to recommend
the use of mifepristone as part of an evidence-based regimen to safely
end a pregnancy;
Whereas the importance of medication abortion is recognized globally, and the
World Health Organization has included mifepristone on its list of
essential medicines since 2005;
Whereas the safety record of mifepristone is demonstrated by its availability in
more than 90 countries, including countries without restrictions like
the mifepristone REMS;
Whereas medication abortion accounted for 63 percent of all abortions in the
United States in 2023;
Whereas, following the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), to
overturn decades of precedent in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and
Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), as of May 2026, bans
have eliminated all or some abortions in 20 States, compounding an
already complex landscape and exacerbating the existing abortion-access
crisis;
Whereas, in the years since the decision of the Supreme Court of the United
States to overturn Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and Planned
Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's
Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), anti-abortion politicians and
groups have filed multiple baseless lawsuits against the FDA over its
approval and regulation of mifepristone, attempting to use
misinformation about mifepristone to justify restricting access to this
essential medication nationwide, despite its longstanding safety record;
Whereas the impact to the health and well-being of patients across the country
would be devastating if any action reduced patient access to medication
abortion or increased barriers to prescribing and dispensing medication
abortion;
Whereas abortion bans and restrictions force patients to travel greater
distances for care and face longer wait times, and force some patients
who are unable to access care to remain pregnant against their will;
Whereas scientific research has demonstrated that restricting access to abortion
increases the risk of domestic violence for pregnant people and data
suggests that the privacy of a telehealth consultation may increase a
patient's willingness to disclose abuse or coercion; and
Whereas, due to discrimination, unnecessary restrictions on abortion, including
medication abortion, disproportionately push care out of reach for--
(1) Black and Indigenous people;
(2) people of color;
(3) immigrants;
(4) people with lower incomes;
(5) people in rural communities;
(6) LGBTQ+ people;
(7) people living with disabilities;
(8) people experiencing intimate partner violence; and
(9) other pregnant people who have been disproportionately harmed by
systemic inequities in health care: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that--
(1) Food and Drug Administration policies affecting access
to medication abortion care in the United States must be based
on transparent scientific review of the full body of gold-
standard medical evidence, as well as considerations of
potential burdens on patient access and the health care
delivery system, as required by the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.);
(2) Congress has granted the Food and Drug Administration
the authority to regulate prescription drug medications and
medical devices based on scientific determinations of their
safety and efficacy grounded in the best available peer-
reviewed evidence-based science, and without political
interference;
(3) the Food and Drug Administration has performed multiple
scientific reviews of mifepristone over 25 years, each time
finding mifepristone to be safe and effective for pregnancy
termination, including when mifepristone is prescribed through
telemedicine and dispensed to eligible patients by mail or at a
pharmacy, based on high-quality clinical research and real-
world-safety data; and
(4) preserving and expanding access to medication abortion
care, including preserving the ability to prescribe
mifepristone through telemedicine and dispense to eligible
patients by mail or at a pharmacy, is important to ensure
equitable access to abortion for patients harmed by statutory,
regulatory, financial, and circumstantial restrictions that
worsen reproductive health disparities for--
(A) Black and Indigenous people;
(B) people of color;
(C) immigrants;
(D) people with lower incomes;
(E) people in rural communities;
(F) LGBTQ+ people;
(G) people living with disabilities;
(H) people experiencing intimate partner violence;
and
(I) people in other marginalized communities.
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