(LifeSiteNews) — Businessman and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy did not directly condemn the use of dangerous chemical abortion drugs when asked during a recent CNN townhall about their legality. Instead, he said abortion drugs should be kept off the market until the FDA follows the normal regulatory procedures for approving drugs.
CNN asked Ramaswamy how the Supreme Court of the United States should rule on a new case it took up concerning Food and Drug Administration approval of mail distribution of the abortion drug mifepristone.
Before the December 2021 decision by the FDA, individuals had to pick up the chemical abortion drugs in person. The Biden administration removed the requirement as part of its all-of-government agenda to make abortion easily available with minimal limits.
Ramaswamy, who said he is pro-life but opposes federal protections for human life, criticized the “administrative state” in his answer. He said the Supreme Court should rule against the FDA for approving the abortion drugs on an “emergency basis.”
“This is less about the abortion question,” Ramaswamy said, as much as it is about the administrative state.
“The FDA exceeded its statutory authority in using an emergency approval to approve something that doesn’t fit Congress’ criteria for what actually counts as an emergency approval,” Ramaswamy said.
Ramaswamy: Keep abortion drugs off market until FDA approves. pic.twitter.com/oaDfBlmRjT
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He then said he would shut down the “fourth branch of government,” “lay off 75% of the federal employee headcount,” and “rescind those unconstitutional federal regulations” that were never passed by Congress.
The CNN host asked again if the Supreme Court should “ban mifepristone.” (The Supreme Court would not be actively banning mifepristone, but rather striking down FDA approval).
Ramaswamy responded by saying the drug should be taken off the market until it is FDA approved.
It was not clear how dismantling the administrative state would advance the cause of life. Reducing federal regulations would seem to make it easier, not harder, for abortion drugs to get approved by the FDA.
Furthermore, while Ramaswamy made the question an issue about regulatory law, he did not directly address whether he believed the Supreme Court, or federal law more broadly, should protect innocent human lives from abortion.
Many pro-lifers, with the reversal of Roe v. Wade, want to see federal action to protect babies from being killed through abortion.