Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is calling for a crackdown on the abortion pill Mifepristone, saying it is time for Congress to increase oversight of the drug and reinstate what he describes as basic safety guardrails.

“The issue is that there are more abortions in the United States now than there were when Roe was still… law,” Hawley told Fox News Digital Tuesday in an interview. 

“I mean, think about it, it is extraordinary,” Hawley said. “Abortions are going up every single year. What’s driving that is Mifepristone. You know, it’s the chemical abortion drug that is getting mailed into every state in the country. Doesn’t matter what the state laws are. It doesn’t matter if your state restricts abortion, bans abortion, or bans Mifepristone, it doesn’t matter.” 

“It’s getting mailed into every single state without a doctor visit, many times, really without even a doctor’s prescription,” he continued. “No follow-up. It’s unbelievable.”

REPUBLICAN SENATORS BLAST FDA FOR EXPANDING ABORTION PILL ACCESS

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaking. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Mifepristone, the abortion pill originally made by Danco Laboratories, blocks progesterone, a hormone needed to sustain pregnancy, and is followed by Misoprostol to complete the process.

“A study of 875,000 insurance claims on Mifepristone is that it has an 11% adverse health event rate,” Hawley said. “This means 11% of women who use it end up in the emergency room or with a very serious health condition. And yet, that’s not what’s on the label of the drug.”

The study, conducted by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, was authored by Ryan T. Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and Jamie Bryan Hall, its director of data analysis.

It reviewed a claims’ database that included 865,727 prescribed Mifepristone abortions from 2017 to 2023.

PRO-LIFE GROUP FINDS BIDEN-ERA FDA POLICY IS DRIVING 500 ABORTIONS PER DAY, SAYS TRUMP HAS POWER TO END IT

Mifepristone tablets are seen in a Planned Parenthood clinic, July 18, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)

The report found that 10.93% of women, nearly 11%, “experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following a Mifepristone abortion.” 

In October, Hawley accused the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of endangering women’s health, saying the agency approved the chemical abortion drug Mifepristone without the thorough safety review it had promised.

“The FDA, the commissioner, Marty Makary, promised me he would do a study,” Hawley told Fox News Digital. “And I just think that that study is nowhere close to being done. I don’t know if it’ll ever be done. So I just, I have concluded that that’s a dead end, but I think Congress is gonna have to approach this in a different way.”

FDA CHIEF HAS NO ‘PLANS’ FOR ABORTION PILL POLICY CHANGES BUT CONTINUES SAFETY REVIEW

A container holding boxes of Mifepristone, the first medication in a medical abortion, is prepared for patients at Alamo Women’s Clinic in Carbondale, Ill., April 20, 2023. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

The Missouri senator said he would at least like to see what he called “minimal” safeguards, including in-person doctor visits before prescriptions are issued and screening for ectopic pregnancies.

“I mean, we’re talking about really minimal things,” Hawley said. “I mean number one, a in-person doctor visit with a doctor actually making the prescription. There needs to be the screening for ectopic pregnancies as part of that because if you take Mifoprestone with an ectopic pregnancy, it could lead to fatal hemorrhaging. There needs to be a follow-up doctor visit.”

“And I believe there needs to be in-person administration of the drug,” he continued. “You know, a doctor actually needs to be there to administer the drug in case there are any side effects. And these are very minor regulations that were in place in President Trump’s first term. President Biden removed them. But really – that’s just the very, that’s the bare, bare minimum.” 

Hawley said that he thinks Congress must “do more” in its oversight of the drug. 

“I think we’re gonna have to do more,” he said. “And, you know, I hope to have more to say about that in the coming weeks. It’s becoming clear to me that this safety review that I hoped would catalyze action at the FDA is just not happening.”

“I mean, it doesn’t look to me like it has any timeframe on it,” Hawley said. “You know, listen, the FDA made a commitment to do that study a year ago, and they are nowhere on it, as near as I could tell. Just nowhere at all. So that to me looks like a complete dead end. And I just think Congress is going to have to step in.”

Congress must “do more” in its oversight of the drug, Sen. Hawley said. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

Makary and the FDA did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

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Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

After years of authoritarian rule, there is hope that this election in Bangladesh will put the country on a path to democracy.

It is the first time people will be able to have their say since a mass student uprising in 2024 led to the ouster of the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

Read more: Bangladesh votes in first general election since bloody ousting of Sheikh Hasina

It was a day the world saw Gen Z topple an autocrat.

Once an icon of democracy and economic progress, Hasina is now in self-imposed exile in India, convicted and sentenced to death for ordering a brutal crackdown against protestors.

The UN estimates 1,400 people were killed in less than two months.

Her party, the once-dominant Awami League, is banned from this election, challenging claims from the caretaker government that this will be an entirely free and fair election.

But it is, at very least and for the first time in a very long time, an election where it’s hard to predict the outcome.

Many will be seeing it as a test to assess the strength and impact of the youth vote and student movements in other parts of the world, like Nepal.

In both countries, frustration over a lack of jobs and endemic corruption exploded, unseating long-established leaderships.

But the truth is, it’s the old guard looming large in this vote on the surface.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is the frontrunner, the largest party, led by Tarique Rahman, son of the former PM Khaleda Zia.

He is part of a well-established dynasty.

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Bangladesh’s first female prime minister dies
India walks tightrope harbouring deposed Bangladeshi PM

Then there’s Jamaat-e-Islami, banned under Hasina and dedicated to running the country under Islamic law.

In December, the student-led National Citizens Party (NCP) made the controversial choice to ally with the much older party.

The split within the youth vote could limit the political impact and influence of young voters.

But there are a lot of them, about 45% of the 128 million registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 33, according to the Election Commission.

Nobody yet knows what they will do, or the many Awami League voters unable to back their party. So far, there are some early indications of low voter turnout in Awami strongholds.

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In full: Wednesday’s The World

But more broadly, there is also a lot of hope and optimism in the air in Bangladesh.

There’s a sense of excitement, people speaking freely about their hopes and that openness hasn’t been on show in previous elections.

Many believe this could be an era-defining vote after years of autocracy and a chance to experience a real contest that doesn’t feel fixed.

One trend to watch for is the role of rising anti-India sentiment.

After years of good neighbourly relations, many voters, particularly young people, accuse Delhi of being overbearing and of supporting Hasina’s regime at the expense of democracy.

King Charles and Princess Diana’s fights could get messy — and Paul Burrell was often left to clean up what was left behind.

The former butler to the late Princess of Wales and footman to Queen Elizabeth II has written a new book, “The Royal Insider.” Behind palace doors, the now 67-year-old was a witness to what was once dubbed “The War of the Waleses” and became a trusted confidant to the princess as her marriage publicly unraveled.

Fox News Digital reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment. A spokesperson for the palace previously told Fox News Digital, “We don’t comment on such books.”

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The former Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales, attend the Gulf War Victory Parade at Mansion House on June 21, 1991, in London. The couple announced their separation in 1992. (Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)

According to Burrell, tensions between Charles and Diana didn’t just simmer — they boiled over behind palace walls. In his book, Burrell claimed he once found the then-Prince of Wales wearing a silk dressing gown “covered in salad dressing.” Burrell had earlier helped set up what was meant to be a candlelit dinner for Charles and Diana.

“One evening, he rang the bell, and I went through after hearing this almighty row from the other side of the door, knowing I shouldn’t intrude until it went quiet,” Burrell told Fox News Digital.

Princess Diana is seen here with her butler Paul Burrell, circa 1994. (Antony Jones/UK Press via Getty Images)

“The dinner table was upside down, broken china everywhere, food everywhere. And he was covered in salad dressing. He looked up at me in a rather sheepish way and said, ‘Oh, I’m terribly sorry. I seemed to have caught my sleeve on the edge of the table, and everything just tipped up.’ ‘Of course.’ He knew, and I knew the real reason was that there’d been an almighty row and Diana had fled upstairs in tears.”

WATCH: KING CHARLES, PRINCESS DIANA’S HEATED FIGHTS DETAILED BY ROYAL BUTLER

It was one of many arguments between the couple, Burrell said, that didn’t end neatly.

“Of course, they would argue, and I was there,” he recalled. “I stood there and watched them shouting and screaming, and I cleaned up the messes. I brushed up the broken china.”

“The Royal Insider: My Life with the Queen, the King and Princess Diana” by Paul Burrell is out now. (Hachette Mobius)

“Charles never hurt Diana physically,” Burrell stressed. He did note that Diana was “mentally tortured” by the breakdown of what should have been her happily ever after.

Former royal butler Paul Burrell claimed to Fox News Digital that Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s arguments would get messy behind palace doors. (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

“The king is not a conciliatory man,” Burrell wrote. “He certainly wasn’t in the Diana years. I witnessed many arguments and fights between Charles and Diana behind closed doors. At times, they were more than a shouting match. Plates were smashed, tempers raised and even tables overturned. … When the prince lost his temper, which he often regretted, he was contrite and apologetic.”

Prince Charles is seen here at his country home, Highgrove House, date unknown. (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

An exhausted Charles would often retreat to Highgrove House, a home he purchased in 1980, shortly before his engagement to Diana. Burrell noted that the property was relatively close to Ray Mill House, where his longtime love, Camilla Parker Bowles, lived.

Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are seen here in 1979. (Tim Graham/Getty Images)

“On weekends, Diana would come and spend family time with her husband,” Burrell told Fox News Digital.

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Prince Charles and Princess Diana with Prince William and Prince Harry at home in the gardens of Highgrove House. (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

“She tried so hard to make it work, but during the week Charles was a free agent. Then he could go and see Camilla, who lived close by. I think the reason he bought Highgrove in the first place was because it was very close to Ray Mill House, where Camilla lived with her husband, Andrew Parker Bowles. On weekends, Diana would come with their boys, and they would be a family — not always a happy one.”

Paul Burrell said that to Princess Diana’s dismay, the now King Charles couldn’t give up his longtime love, Camilla Parker Bowles. (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

“I think that in the very early days, Prince Charles, now our king, tried his hardest to make this marriage work,” said Burrell.

Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer announced their engagement on Feb. 24, 1981. Charles was 32 and Diana was 19. (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images   )

“And although Diana was only 19 years old, he was much older than her. He tried to help her along the way, but the gap was far too wide. There were too many years separating them. And also, Charles had never let go of his true love, Camilla.”

“But he tried,” Burrell continued. “He tried with the help of his family to make this family survive. But what’s interesting is, when I stood there all those years ago, I saw how hard our dear late queen and Prince Philip supported Princess Diana in her hard times, not necessarily their son, Prince Charles, who would be king.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana are seen here accompanying Queen Elizabeth II at Clarence House, date unknown. (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

“The queen said to me when I left her service in 1987, ‘Paul, one day you’ll be back here at Buckingham Palace looking after a king and queen, Charles and Diana.’ She had every hope that Charles would make the marriage work. But of course, it couldn’t.”

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Lady Diana Spencer and Camilla Parker Bowles are seen here at Ludlow Races where Prince Charles was competing, circa 1980. (Express Newspapers/Archive Photos)

“We all know that Charles’s great love was Camilla, and he never really let go of that,” he added.

Princess Diana arrives at the Serpentine Gallery in London in June 1994 wearing the now-famous “revenge dress.” She chose to wear the striking ensemble the same night Prince Charles publicly admitted to infidelity. (Anwar Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images)

Diana was determined to be a devoted royal wife and mother, Burrell said. But by the time Charles and Diana’s separation was announced in 1992, the marriage was widely seen as beyond repair.

“She couldn’t always reach him,” Burrell reflected. 

Former royal butler Paul Burrell told Fox News Digital that the significant age gap between Prince Charles and Princess Diana was one of the reasons the marriage ultimately collapsed. (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

“She couldn’t always understand the way he lived his life because his life was one of a prince and would be, one day, one of a king. She didn’t fit into that world where a prince could have everything he wanted, and a king could make the rules and make everything happen. She realized that she didn’t have the power. He did.”

Burrell isn’t the first to describe how Charles and Diana’s seemingly storybook romance became a nightmare.

Paul Burrell is seen here accompanying Princess Diana in Bosnia just weeks before her death in 1997. (Kent Gavin/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

In 2022, author Christopher Andersen’s book, “The King: The Life of Charles III,” was published. He spoke with numerous palace insiders, as well as those who knew or worked closely with the former Prince of Wales.

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Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s divorce was finalized in 1996. (Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images)

Andersen wrote that during the marriage, Charles “had sunk into a deep depression” and believed he “was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.” He turned to one of his confidants, Arnold Goodman, and reportedly said, “I have nothing to live for.” Goodman, Andersen noted, believed Charles was “showing the classic signs of depression.”

Charles not only felt trapped in a loveless marriage, Goodman believed, but he also feared that a divorce — if it could even be granted by the queen — “would have grave repercussions for his children, the royal family and the monarchy itself.”

The Prince and Princess of Wales attend a welcome ceremony in Toronto at the beginning of their Canadian tour, circa Oct. 1991. (Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images)

According to Andersen, Goodman shared his concerns with royal protection officers. Ken Wharfe, Diana’s former protection officer, described the atmosphere as “highly combustible.” Housekeeper Wendy Berry recalled witnessing “slammed doors and pitched battles” that became “the hallmarks of day-to-day life.”

Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married on July 29, 1981. (Anwar Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images)

The trouble between Diana and Charles began long before their so-called fairy-tale wedding.

Charles, as heir to the British throne, was reportedly urged to either end his relationship with then-Lady Diana Spencer or propose. 

Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were married on April 9, 2005. (Alastair Grant/AFP via Getty Images)

Before the wedding, Diana expressed doubts about going through with it — especially after discovering a bracelet Charles made for Camilla. The marriage grew tumultuous, and both later engaged in extramarital affairs.

Martin Bashir is seen here interviewing Princess Diana in Kensington Palace for the television program “Panorama.” (© Pool Photograph/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

During her headline-making 1995 interview on the BBC program “Panorama,” Diana famously told journalist Martin Bashir, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

PRINCESS DIANA FOUND UNEXPECTED POLITICAL ALLY DURING MARRIAGE CRISIS: BOOK

King Charles and Queen Camilla were crowned in 2023. (Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images)

Their divorce was finalized in 1996. A year later, Diana died from injuries she sustained in a Paris car crash. She was 36.

Princess Diana died in 1997. She was 36. (Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive)

Charles and Camilla married in 2005. After the queen’s death in 2022, Charles ascended the throne, and in 2023 he was crowned king with Camilla at his side.

“Charles certainly hasn’t always been popular with the public, but I think they have warmed to him since he became king,” Burrell wrote. “I would credit his mother’s legacy for that to a certain extent — but there are people who will never forget Diana.”

EXCLUSIVE: Carrie Buck, a Nevada state senator, mother and former school principal, is gaining massive momentum in a critical race to oust Democratic Rep. Dina Titus from what the GOP considers a top target seat in the upcoming midterm elections.  

Titus’ district, Nevada Congressional District 1, has been trending hard towards the GOP for the last several election cycles. Now, with the future of the party’s House majority on the line, and the remainder of President Donald Trump’s tenure with it, Buck believes she is just the political outsider Republicans need to seal the deal.  

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Buck said the shift in Nevada has been palpable.

“You can feel the tides changing,” she said. “Dina Titus has done nothing for the last seven terms that she’s been in there. She has done nothing for us, nothing tangible. And so, I want to go and deliver results for Nevadans.”

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Left: Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev. Right: Nevada state Sen. Carrie Buck, who is running for Congress. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images; Campaign for Carrie Buck)

Since announcing her candidacy in August, Buck has garnered impressive fundraising numbers. She was the only Republican to outraise a Democratic incumbent without self-funding. In the last quarter of 2025, Buck outraised Titus, $352,400 to $298,800. Buck also prides herself on running a “truly grassroots” campaign in which she has raised a total of $497,929.59 from 7,852 unique donors, with an average contribution of just $59.

The wife of a retired police chief, mother of four sons, two of whom have served in the U.S. Army, Buck credits her grassroots appeal to simply being an “everyday person.”

“I still drive a minivan, that’s my campaign van,” she laughed. “I want to be a voice for Nevadans, for people that are in my neighborhood, in my community.”

Meanwhile, Buck accused Titus of “voting against Nevadans time and time again,” especially with her recent votes against No Tax on Tips and a childcare tax credit policy, both of which were included in the President Donald Trump-backed big, beautiful bill.

In response, Lindsay Reilly, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told Fox News Digital that “Buck could learn a thing or two from Titus’ track record of delivering.”

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Las Vegas, Nevada, skyline. (iStock)

“Dina Titus is consistently ranked one of the most effective members of Congress,” Reilly continued. “She’s fighting to lower costs for families, strengthen no taxes on tips, and reverse Republicans’ reckless new tax on gambling.”  

She has framed herself as someone who gets results. Before entering politics, she worked for eight years as principal of a low-income elementary school in Henderson, Nevada, which was teetering on the edge of failure. When she started, reading and math proficiency were both languishing at around 35% each, but under her leadership, they shot up to 83 and 90%, respectively. The rapid transformation earned her the Milken Educator Award, often referred to as the “Oscars for education.”

If successful in November, this would not be the first time Buck has flipped a Nevada seat red. In 2020, she won her state Senate seat by a razor-thin margin that was the result of a five-percentage point swing. In 2024, despite the district previously being a Democratic stronghold, Buck significantly widened that margin, winning by seven percentage points.

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Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., speaks at the Nevada Democratic Party’s election results watch party after winning her race against Republican challenger Joyce Bentley at Caesars Palace on Nov. 6, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The National Republican Congressional Committee is confident Buck can do something similar for Nevada District 1.

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NRCC spokesman Christian Martinez remarked to Fox News Digital that Buck’s fundraising numbers prove that “career politician Dina Titus is out of touch with Nevadans and running on fumes, scrambling for campaign transfers from Hollywood liberals, D.C. swamp leeches, and New York elites as her support with hardworking Nevadans collapses.” 

In conclusion, Buck said, “The nuts and bolts of this campaign are kitchen table issues.”

“I want to bring truth to light, and I think oftentimes the Democrats and Dina Titus have lied to us,” she said. “They told us the border is closed; they told us that they’ve made things more affordable. But yet, we all know the American people are smart. They know that is absolutely the opposite of what they’ve done.”

Titus did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.