A New Orleans court ruling to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone was needed because the Food and Drug Administration "changed the rules on the fly" to make the pill more widely available, Sen. James Lankford said on Newsmax Thursday.
"For instance, if an individual doesn't want to go to a doctor they can or they can't go to any medical professionals," the Oklahoma Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "They have also changed the rules on reporting, saying they don't want any reporting on any side effects on this abortion drug unless it actually causes the death of the patient."
This means the Biden administration can say there are no negative reports about the use of the drug, said Lankford.
Wednesday, a U.S. appeals court in New Orleans ordered a ban on telemedicine prescriptions and said access to mifepristone must be restricted while stopping short of ruling the drug must be pulled from the market, as a lower court had.
The court, with its ruling, was stepping in to say that the FDA must follow through on certain procedures, said Lankford.
"This drug can cause sterilization for moms, and takes the life of their child," said Lankford. "It can also cause them to not be able to have children in the future, [or] cause excessive bleeding and lots of pain. There's a large number of individuals that take this drug that end up in the ER as well. And so there are major issues."
But the "abortion crowd" wants people to think that if they take the pill "the baby goes away, but that's not how it really works," he added.
Meanwhile, he said he believes the abortion issue will play a larger role in state elections in 2024, rather than on the national level.
"About half the states in the country have decreased the number of lives that are taken of children in the country through abortion," Lankford said. "About half of them have actually expanded the number of abortions that are in their state."
Abortion does remain a major issue on the national level, the senator said.
"These are children," said Lankford. "These are vulnerable citizens, and there's going to be this ongoing conversation," including on partial-birth abortion.
Lankford also commented on former President Donald Trump's upcoming arraignment in Atlanta, where it's expected a mug shot will be released of him.
"President Trump has shown over and over again, each indictment his actual numbers go up as the American people step in," said Lankford. "This was the same effect that happened during President Bill Clinton's time period when he was impeached for having sex in the White House. His numbers went up during that time period. The American people rallied to him, and so we're going to see this across the board."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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