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Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been without a Senate-approved commissioner for nearly a year. Biden's nominee is alienating to both progressives and conservatives. Church Militant's Nadia Hazimeh wades into the controversy surrounding today's committee vote.

Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind.: "Under your leadership, in 2016, the FDA weakened the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy on protocols."

Dr. Robert Califf, a former FDA commissioner, distanced himself from his 2016 decision to weaken protocols for reporting adverse effects of the chemical-abortion drug. Under Califf, only deaths resulting from the abortion drug were reported to the FDA. The organization notes only 20 women have died from the drug. Other data shows nearly 600 women have been hospitalized with life-threatening conditions. Additionally, over 2,000 events involving hemorrhaging or life-threatening bleeding (due to abnormal pregnancies) were recorded.

Kristi Hamrick, chief media and policy strategist, Students for Life Action:

So if you took those chemical-abortion pills, it won't end that pregnancy. You'll bleed because the pills will make you bleed. You might think, "Oh you're no longer pregnant." But that pregnancy will continue, and the reason why women die from ectopic pregnancy is, normally, the baby bursts out of the fallopian tube and the woman dies from internal bleeding.

Pro-abortion Republicans-in-name-only, including senators Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski, are expected to vote for Califf. This is offset by some Democrats, including Bernie Sanders, who are expected to oppose Biden's nominee because of concerns about the millions of dollars Califf has received from Big Pharma.

The FDA last month made mail-order abortion drugs permanently available. The lack of medical oversight is expected to adversely impact thousands of lives. 

The Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted 13–8 in favor of Biden's nominee, who now faces a tougher challenge in the full Senate.

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