Mifeprex Outcry

Pro-life groups are asking the Food and Drug Administration to ban the abortion pill known as Mifeprex, saying it jeopardizes women's health and that the agency broke its own rules during the Clinton administration in approving it.

In a 90-page petition, Concerned Women for America, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Christian Medical Association charged that the FDA bent to pressure from pro-abortion groups.

The petition charges the drug did not receive the same scrutiny as other drugs due to political considerations. To revoke their approval for Mifeprex, the FDA would have to determine that new evidence has determined it is unsafe.

The FDA has long defended its approval of the drug, which occurred just before the 2000 election and said politics had nothing to do with it. The petitioners say it did and they also contend that new evidence details adverse affects on women who took the drug. We know it has an adverse effect on babies. I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.