On September 1, 2020, Republican Senator Ted Cruz and 19 of his Republican colleagues sent a letter to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn urging the agency to ban the abortion pill, Mifeprex, in the United States.

In defense of the letter, Cruz claimed that “pregnancy is not a life-threatening illness” and the abortion pill does not “cure or prevent disease.” In the letter itself, Cruz called Mifeprex “highly dangerous” and “deadly.”

First of all, decades of research shows that medication abortion is safe. In fact, it’s safer to have a medical abortion than it is to carry a pregnancy to term. Cruz’s attempt to remove Mifeprex from the U.S. market isn’t based in legitimate science or a desire to keep pregnant people safe—it’s just the same anti-abortion rhetoric he’s spewed for years.

Second, while pregnancy is not an illness, it is most certainly life-threatening. The United States’ maternal mortality rate is abysmal, particularly for Black women—and Texas, Cruz’s own state, has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world.

The Republican senators’ claims in their letter to the FDA are even more egregious given that we’re in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the virus continues to spread, pregnancy is becoming even more dangerous. Further, trying to ban the abortion pill in the middle of an unprecedented national health crisis is just plain cruel. People need increased access to health care right now—like being able to receive Mifeprex by mail—not an additional onslaught of abortion restrictions.

It’s downright despicable that instead of focusing on passing a real pandemic relief package or finding solutions to pregnancy and childbirth risks in the states they represent, anti-abortion senators are instead trying to ban a critical form of medical care. They should be ashamed.

We must demand full protection to reproductive medical care!

Sign the petition: Reproductive health care is essential health care. We must protect our access to all medical care.