Abortion Advocates Don’t Want Probe of Abortion Drug Approval 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 8, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates in Congress last month floated an amendment that would force an investigation of the FDA’s delay on approving the morning after pill for over the counter access. But, they quickly dropped those demands when a pro-life lawmaker floated an amendment to investigate the rapid approval process of the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug at the end of the Clinton administration.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, proposed the Plan B probe on October 26 when she put forward an amendment to HR 3010 that funds the Department of Health and Human Services.
FDA Week reports that Murrary withdrew the amendment when pro-life Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican who is an OBGYN, announced he would put forward a competing amendment investigating why the Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked the approval of the abortion drug mifepristone in the waning days of the Clinton administration.
FDA approved mifepristone under a set of FDA rules known as subpart H, which usually is reserved for approving drugs for life-threatening illnesses
According to FDA Week, a spokesman for Coburn said Murrary withdrew her amendment because both it and Coburn’s would have gone to an immediate vote. A spokesperson for Murray denied that was the case.
Murray’s amendment would have shifted $3 million from the Office of the HHS Secretary to the agency’s Office of Inspector General to conduct an investigation into alleged mismanagement at FDA and determine why the agency has repeatedly put off a decision on allowing women over 16 to buy the Plan B pills without a prescription.
