WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Representative John Rose (TN-06) spoke on the House Floor Tuesday in support of H.R. 4368, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2024.
The full remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:
Mister Speaker, as a Christian, a father, and conservative Member of Congress: I make no secret about it—I am absolutely and 100% unapologetically pro-life. I believe life begins at conception, and I believe that we must do everything we can to protect the innocent children living in their mother’s wombs who are unable to protect themselves.
This week, House Republicans will be considering H.R. 4368, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2024. This bill not only funds many valuable programs on which our farmers and families rely to get food and fiber to our tables, but it also funds the Food and Drug Administration, which plays a vital role in the food and drug safety of our country.
Recently, under President Joe Biden, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, has done the unthinkable: it has approved and expanded the use of mifepristone—a drug that induces a chemical abortion—for delivery by mail.
This is wrong on so many levels. For starters, let me be clear: this is a deadly drug not only for the baby in the womb, but it can also be deadly for the mother taking it.
According to a scholarly article in Issues in Law and Medicine, titled “Deaths and Severe Adverse Events after the use of mifepristone as an Abortifacient from September 2000 to February 2019,” out of 2,660 codable adverse reactions, 20 resulted in deaths, 529 were life-threatening, and 1,957 were severe adverse reactions.
Given the potentially deadly side effects, what possible justification does the FDA have to approve such a dangerous drug for distribution through the mail, allowing patients to self-administer it without close medical supervision given the potentially dangerous side effects? Giving a political pay back to the abortion industrial complex is not a justification. In fact, there is no justification whatsoever. Regardless of where you stand on the debate about abortion, this is truly abhorrent.
Now, I don’t believe anyone in their right minds would say this drug is safe for human consumption. We already know for sure that consuming this drug ends one human life, and it has the potential to actually end two lives every time a pregnant woman takes it.
That’s why Republicans have included language in the appropriations bill that funds the FDA that prohibits the use of this dangerous and deadly mail-order chemical abortion drug. I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle can recognize the clear and present danger this FDA policy represents, and make the commonsense decision to support this provision, rather than trying to strip it out in the amendment process.
We can only hope for a future where these practices finally come to an end, but until then conservatives like me will continue fighting to rein-in the FDA’s reckless approval of dangerous drugs that put women’s health in danger and to keep all innocent and voiceless children safe from this abhorrent practice.
You can watch the full speech here.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://johnrose.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-rose-supporting-end-abortion-drug-mail