Reproductive-rights advocates are pushing back against the review of the abortion medication mifepristone ordered by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review the medication during a Senate hearing Wednesday because of findings laid out in a new study conducted by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), a conservative think tank.

Advocates say Kennedy is using inaccurate data on the drug to justify going against the existing science on mifepristone. They say the “new data” Kennedy mentioned comes from a flawed analysis that anti-abortion groups across the country are using to persuade the Trump administration to impose restrictions on the medication or ban its use.

“It’s clear they are ignoring decades of peer-reviewed research demonstrating mifepristone safety and the FDA’s own review of this research," said Ushma Upadhyay, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

“The FDA could be doing even more to eliminate medically unjustified barriers to these medications. Instead, there is now an effort to use junk science as a basis for even more restrictions,” she added.

Kennedy has said in the past that mifepristone should be reviewed, most notably during his Senate confirmation hearing in January when he said President Trump had asked him to study the safety of the drug.

“Patients should not be losing access to the safest and most effective regimen for care based on junk science for political wins,” said Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project.

Medication abortions typically involve the use of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone stops a pregnancy from continuing, and misoprostol is used to induce cramping........

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