Michigan Independent: Rogers “backed a federal ban on abortion” and “repeatedly co-sponsored bills” to suspend FDA approval of mifepristone
LANSING — The Michigan Independent has reported that Mike Rogers “built up a consistently anti-abortion record during his time in Congress, routinely voting against reproductive rights 100% of the time.” Rogers “repeatedly co-sponsored bills” to suspend FDA approval of mifepristone, “backed a federal ban on abortion,” and “co-sponsored four different House bills that would have declared that life begins at the moment of conception.”
The story notes Rogers co-sponsored two bills “to withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone pending a mandatory review by the General Accounting Office,” despite FDA declaring mifepristone is “safe and effective” based on a “thorough and comprehensive review of the scientific evidence.”
Rogers’ dangerous stance is out-of-step with Michiganders, “69% of Michigan voters favor ensuring that residents of the state have access to ‘the FDA-approved abortion medication.’”
Read the Michigan Independent’s reporting on Rogers’ extensive “anti-abortion record:”
Michigan Independent: Mike Rogers twice co-sponsored bills to suspend FDA approval of medication abortion drug
- The U.S. Supreme Court held oral arguments on March 26 on a right-wing challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s September 2000 approval of mifepristone, a drug used for medication abortions. In his 14 years in the U.S. House, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers repeatedly co-sponsored bills to undo approval of the medication.
- Rogers announced in September that he would move from Florida to Michigan to run for the GOP nomination for retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s open seat.
- … [Rogers] did not support Michigan’s 2022 constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion…
- Rogers built up a consistently anti-abortion record during his time in Congress, routinely voting against reproductive rights 100% of the time, according to scorecards compiled by NARAL Pro-Choice America, now known as Reproductive Freedom for All.
- In 2013, he backed a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks’ gestation, and in 2010 he told the Associated Press: “I believe that federal and state governments were established to protect our lives and the lives of the unborn. I believe abortions should be legal only to prevent the death of the mother.”
- In December 2003, Rogers co-sponsored the RU-486 Suspension and Review Act, a bill to withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone pending a mandatory review by the General Accounting Office, a congressional watchdog agency now known as the Government Accountability Office.
- Two years later, he again co-sponsored the proposal.
- “Mifepristone is safe when used as indicated and directed and consistent with the Mifepristone Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) Program. The FDA approved Mifeprex more than 20 years ago based on a thorough and comprehensive review of the scientific evidence presented and determined that it was safe and effective for its indicated use,” the agency’s website states. “As of 2016, it can be used for medical termination of pregnancy up to 70 days of gestation.”
- In 2011, Rogers voted for an amendment to an appropriations bill that would have barred the Department of Agriculture from allocating any funds to pay for mifepristone.
- A 2023 Hart Research Associates poll for the abortion rights group All* Above All found that 69% of Michigan voters favor ensuring that residents of the state have access to “the FDA-approved abortion medication.”
- Rogers also co-sponsored four different House bills that would have declared that life begins at the moment of conception. Experts say such so-called personhood laws could imperil access to in vitro fertilization, much as one did in Alabama in February when the state’s Supreme Court declared frozen embryos are children.
- Users added context to [Rogers’] tweet, appending a note that read, “In his 14 years in Congress Mike Rogers sponsored 4 bills that would have the same effect as the Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF ruling.”
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