FDA says its abortion pill safety review will continue into next year

Reported by CBS News. The paragraphs below are the opening of that article, reproduced word for word — not a summary, and not the whole piece.

Washington — The Food and Drug Administration says its ongoing safety review of the nation's main abortion pill will continue into next year, a timeline that was quickly condemned by abortion rights opponents hoping to see the drug's use curtailed.

The FDA gave a court-ordered update on its progress in a legal filing late Wednesday, providing the first substantive information about the controversial reevaluation ordered by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Mifepristone was first approved by the FDA in 2000. The agency has repeatedly reaffirmed the pill's safety and effectiveness over the years, in addition to easing a number of restrictions on the drug, including dropping a requirement that it be dispensed in person.

But since President Trump returned to the White House, anti-abortion rights groups and their allies in Congress have pushed the administration to revisit the pill, in the hopes of restricting its use.

The FDA said in its filing that it expects to complete a safety study of the pill by mid-December this year. A report on the findings is expected "no later than March 2027," after which the agency will decide whether to impose new restrictions or other changes on the drug's use.

Gavin Oxley, of Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group, criticized the move as a lack of "true leadership" by Trump administration officials.