IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 309 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Food and 

Drug Administration has the authority to approve drugs for abortion care. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 19, 2023 

Ms. MANNING (for herself, Ms. CARAVEO, Ms. MENG, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Mr. PAPPAS, Ms. CHU, Mr. DELUZIO, 

Ms. PRESSLEY, Mr. TONKO, Ms. CROCKETT, Ms. TOKUDA, Ms. 

BUDZINSKI, Mr. IVEY, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Ms. SALINAS, Mr. PANETTA, Ms. 

PETTERSEN, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. CASAR, Ms. PORTER, Mr. MRVAN, 

Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Ms. SCANLON, Mr. NICKEL, Ms. WILLIAMS

of Georgia, Mrs. SYKES, Ms. ESCOBAR, Ms. WILD, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, 

Mr. LANDSMAN, Ms. TITUS, and Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin) submitted the 

following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and 

Commerce 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 

the Food and Drug Administration has the authority 

to approve drugs for abortion care. 

Whereas Congress has entrusted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the safety of the United States people for more than 80 years; 

Whereas, on June 25, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt 

signed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act 

(FFDCA) into law, authorizing the FDA to oversee, regulate, and approve new drugs; 


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•HRES 309 IH 

Whereas, on October 10, 1962, President John F. Kennedy 

signed the Kefauver-Harris Amendments to the FFDCA 

into law, charging the FDA with the authority to approve 

new drugs that were established by manufacturers to be 

proven safe and effective; 

Whereas, since the enactment of the FFDCA, the FDA has 

approved more than 19,000 prescription drug products 

for marketing; 

Whereas, on July 19, 1996, the FDA’s Reproductive Health 

Drugs Advisory Committee voted that mifepristone was 

safe for use and effective; 

Whereas, on September 28, 2000, the FDA approved the use 

of mifepristone for medical termination of pregnancy 

after a nearly 5-year review process; 

Whereas, in August 2008, an audit of the approval and oversight of mifepristone by the Government Accountability 

Office found that the approval of mifepristone was consistent with the approval and oversight of other drugs; 

Whereas mifepristone is used in more than half of abortion 

procedures nationwide; 

Whereas the safety and efficacy of medication abortion is 

supported by over two decades of scientific research and 

data collection; 

Whereas there is overwhelming evidence that medication 

abortion is safe and effective for virtually anyone who 

wants to end an early pregnancy, with a safety record of 

over 99 percent; 

Whereas more than 5,000,000 people in the United States 

have used mifepristone since its approval to safely end 

pregnancies at home and at health care centers, to safely 

treat miscarriages, and in other reproductive health care; 


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•HRES 309 IH 

Whereas access to mifepristone remains a lifeline for millions 

of Americans who seek reproductive health care; 

Whereas, on April 7, 2023, the United States District Court 

for the Northern District of Texas issued an injunction 

that stayed the FDA’s approval of mifepristone; and 

Whereas, on April 7, 2023, the United States District Court 

for the Eastern District of Washington issued an injunction that preliminarily enjoined the FDA to refrain from 

making changes to its approval of mifepristone in the 

plaintiffs’ States of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, 

Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, and the District of Columbia: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that— 

3 (1) by enacting the Federal Food, Drug, and 

4 Cosmetic Act and subsequent amendments, Congress 

5 intended for and authorized the Food and Drug Ad6 ministration to review and approve drug applications 

7 under its expert authority; 

8 (2) Congress intended the provisions of the 

9 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to govern 

10 any review of Food and Drug Administration ap11 proval decisions to ensure that such decisions are 

12 given due deference, are based on scientifically driv13 en assessments made by experts at Food and Drug 


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•HRES 309 IH 

1 Administration, and maximize the public’s access to 

2 life- and health-preserving medications; 

3 (3) Congress did not intend for Federal courts 

4 to engage in independent judicial review of the sci5 entific evidence before the Food and Drug Adminis6 tration and make their own findings about a drug’s 

7 safety and efficacy; 

8 (4) a Federal court’s attempt to reverse 

9 mifepristone’s approval represents a violation of the 

10 intent of Congress in passing the Federal Food, 

11 Drug, and Cosmetic Act; 

12 (5) the stay of mifepristone’s approval by a dis13 trict court represents a threat to other duly Food 

14 and Drug Administration-regulated products; and 

15 (6) all people living in the United States should 

16 have the ability to make decisions about their own 

17 lives, futures, and reproductive health care, includ18 ing abortion. 

Æ 


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