Former Vice President Mike Pence says he “fully” supports efforts to take mifepristone, one of two drugs used for medication abortions, off the market.
“The reality is that 20 years ago, the [Food and Drug Administration] exceeded its authority in approving the abortion pill,” Pence said Wednesday in an interview with Fox 11 Los Angeles during a visit to the Nixon Presidential Library. “And at the end of the day, I fully support efforts to take the abortion pill off the market.”
Pence, who is considering a White House run in 2024, has been the only person in the field of current and potential Republican candidates to praise a ruling earlier this month that sought to ban the prescription and distribution of mifepristone nationwide.
“Life won again today,” Pence said in a statement following the ruling. “When it approved chemical abortions on demand, the FDA acted carelessly and with blatant disregard for human life and the wellbeing of American women, and today’s ruling fixed a 20-year wrong.”
Texas District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Trump, said in his ruling that the FDA improperly rushed its approval of mifepristone 23 years ago, resulting in an unsafe drug regimen.
After a federal appeals court ruled last week that the common abortion pill could remain on the market with certain exceptions, the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
The high court temporarily blocked the lower court’s ruling through at least Friday, leaving access to mifepristone unchanged for now.