More than two-thirds of Americans indicated they are against Biden-era Food and Drug Administration rules that allow women to receive dangerous abortion pills without seeing a doctor in-person first, according to a new poll reported Wednesday.
Polling conducted on behalf of the 85 Fund and obtained by The Daily Wire reveals a large majority of likely voters — 67 percent — support “reinstating an in-person doctor visit requirement for accessing an abortion pill via the mail,” according to the outlet. When separated according to political party, the poll found significant majorities of both Republicans (72 percent) and Democrats (63 percent) support reimplementing the requirement. Sixty-eight percent of independents supported the same.
As The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd has reported, the Biden administration ultimately “rolled back” the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMs), or safety standards, for the abortion drug mifepristone. This enabled “the distribution of mifepristone without essential medical screenings,” such as an in-person doctor visit for a prescription.
A bombshell study released last year by the Ethics and Public Policy Center revealed that the rate of serious complications after taking mifepristone is at least 22 times higher than the FDA and a primary producer of the pill have claimed. What’s more, there are plenty of examples and reports of bad actors exploiting the lax REMs requirements to poison mothers and murder babies with mifepristone, not to mention the overwhelming majority of abortions believed to be coerced, unwanted, or at odds with what mothers desire.
According to the 85 Fund poll, many Americans recognize the need for tighter abortion pill safeguards to protect women and children. For example, 70 percent of respondents, as The Daily Wire reported, “said they would support the FDA making an in-person medical evaluation required before and after taking an abortion pill.”
After hearing that some men manipulate women into killing their babies, 62 percent of respondents “said they were more likely to support an in-person requirement.” Almost half of those surveyed said they would be “less likely to support their representative” if he or she supported allowing abortion drugs to be ordered online and mailed “without a medical evaluation.”
The poll conducted earlier this month surveyed 1,600 “likely voters,” roughly split evenly between Republicans, Democrats, and independents. Thirty-one percent identified as pro-life, 39 percent identified as pro-choice, and 27 percent believed themselves to be “somewhere in between.”
As Boyd reported Thursday, the polling comes amid multiple senators sending letters to major mifepristone manufacturers over these businesses’ roles in “the ongoing scheme to circumvent pro-life states’ laws with mail-order abortion pills.”
