Cruz tweet on pregnancy risks draws ire
Sen. Ted Cruz came under fire from abortion-rights proponents after saying Wednesday on social media that pregnancy is not a “life-threatening illness” when the U.S. has the highest maternal death rate out of the world’s developed nations.
Cruz made the comment in a tweet promoting a letter signed by himself and other Republican senators calling on the Food and Drug Administration to declare Mifeprex, also known as the “abortion pill,” an “imminent hazard to the public health” and removed from the market.
“Pregnancy is not a life-threatening illness, and the abortion pill does not cure or prevent any disease,” Cruz said. “Make no mistake, Mifeprex is a dangerous pill. That’s why 20 of my Republican colleagues and I are urging @US_FDA to classify it as such.”
“No, it’s not an illness, but it is lifethreatening,” reproductive and public health expert Dr. Beverly Winikoff told USA TODAY in response to Cruz’s remark. “The odds of dying in pregnancy are higher than dying from this drug.”
In their letter, the 20 GOP senators said “this deadly pill should never have been approved” and objected to it being approved through “an accelerated approval process normally reserved for high-risk drugs that address lifethreatening illnesses like AIDS.”
Mifeprex, a brand name for the drug mifepristone, has been one of the FDA’s most restricted drugs for decades, according to a recent Newsy investigation. One of two drugs used to perform a medication abortion, the FDA approved its use in 2000 under tight regulation.