Dear Friend,
Later this month will mark three years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its landmark Dobbs decision. That ruling triggered dangerous abortion bans across the nation, upending decades of legal precedent and progress to improve Americans’ access to lifesaving health care. But we always knew religious, anti-abortion extremists wouldn’t stop there.
They told us so in Project 2025, outlining in black-and-white their plan to restrict, deny, and ultimately eliminate abortion care. Anti-abortion groups are coalescing around their next game plan now, one they’re calling “Rolling Thunder” and the “biggest opportunity for the pro-life movement” since Dobbs. The objective? Pressure the Trump Administration to crack down on medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of all U.S. abortions.
One of the most commonly used abortion medications is mifepristone, which the World Health Organization considers an essential medicine for basic health care systems. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug more than 20 years ago “based on a thorough and comprehensive review of the scientific evidence presented,” determining “it was safe and effective for its indicated use.”
Yet, on Monday, FDA Commissioner Martin Makary confirmed the agency will now be “conducting a review” of mifepristone, even though it’s been safely used by more than six million people in the U.S. and has had its safety and efficacy confirmed by over 100 scientific studies. As one professor of epidemiology and medicine said, “There may be a political fight here, but there’s not a lot of scientific ambiguity about the safety and effectiveness of this product.”
Given the clear consensus… What is Makary reviewing, and why?
Enter Rolling Thunder. Turns out their big idea is to legitimize and weaponize junk science, specifically a new report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) called “The Abortion Pill Harms Women.” The essay falsely claims one in ten mifepristone patients experience an “adverse event” after use and recommends the FDA “reconsider its approval altogether.”
Actual scientists have expressed serious doubts about the paper’s validity. For one thing, that many patients experience some bleeding and pain is an expected effect of the drug and not indicative of a serious or dangerous complication.
Actual science isn’t exactly EPPC’s thing, though. According to their website, their mission is “to apply the riches of the Jewish and Christian traditions to contemporary questions of law, culture, and politics…” Yet their religious nationalist propaganda has already been elevated to the highest levels of government and to a person, Makary, with the authority to “reconsider, if not suspend, [FDA] approval.” So far, everything is going according to Rolling Thunder’s plan.
An FDA spokesperson’s assurance that the agency is “leveraging gold standard science to make informed decisions” does little to comfort me considering the Trump Administration also heralded the Make American Healthy Again report “gold standard science,” even as it relied on artificial intelligence that made up and misrepresented citations.
This isn’t science. It’s a strategic scheme to strip Americans of fundamental rights and block their access to safe, effective, and lifesaving medication. And it’s yet another harmful imposition of religious belief onto everyone else, ignoring both overwhelming scientific evidence and the overwhelming will of voters.
American Atheists is fighting back to promote facts over faith in state legislatures across the country. Just this week, we alerted our members in Massachusetts to take action in support of closing a dangerous religious loophole in their school vaccination requirements. Because we know when religious dogma replaces real data, people suffer.
That’s why we can’t let Rolling Thunder’s propaganda become public policy. Please give a gift of $25 or more TODAY to stand with us against this dangerous disinformation and stop more anti-abortion lies from becoming the law of the land!
In solidarity,
Melina Cohen
Director of Strategic Communications & Policy Engagement
American Atheists is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan, nonprofit educational organization that relies on the support of members like you. Contributions are tax-deductible. Our Federal Tax ID Number is 74-2466507, and our Combined Federal Campaign number is 52217.
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