More than one in 20 women need a second abortion attempt after the abortion pill fails, a new analysis of insurance claim data shows.
Over 5% of women had to undergo a repeat abortion attempt within 45 days of taking mifepristone, indicating that the first mifepristone abortion attempt failed, according to an analysis from the Ethics and Public Policy Center released Monday. The Center analyzed insurance claims data from 865,727 mifepristone abortions between 2017 and 2023.
A total of 45,498 women needed a second abortion attempt to complete their abortions after mifepristone failed, the data show. Of those women, 24,563 needed a surgical abortion procedure. Nearly 7,000 women underwent both a second medication abortion attempt and a surgical abortion attempt after their first mifepristone attempt failed, the analysis found.
This is the latest evidence that advocates have misconstrued the safety and efficacy of the abortion pill. An analysis released last month found that more than one in 10 women experienced a “serious adverse event” after taking the mifepristone abortion pill in 2023. This can include hemorrhaging, needing a blood transfusion, an emergency room visit, and even deadly conditions like sepsis.
That is about 22 times higher than what the FDA listed on its label for the brand Mifeprex in 2023. The FDA cited clinical studies saying less than 0.5% of women suffered “serious adverse reactions” to mifepristone.
The two-pill chemical abortion regimen — mifepristone, usually followed by misoprostol — aims to end the life of the unborn baby and expel it from the woman’s uterus. However, the drugs sometimes fail to expel all the fetal tissue, which can cause life-threatening complications.
Nearly 14% of women experience either a serious adverse event or repeat abortion attempt after taking the abortion pill, Monday’s analysis found. The report’s authors concluded that the FDA should immediately reinstate the stronger patient safety protocols it previously had in place for mifepristone.
A few months before Roe v. Wade was overturned, the FDA scrapped the requirement that women must obtain abortion pills in person from a healthcare provider, allowing them to obtain them online through the mail.
The FDA should also mandate reporting of the abortion pill’s side effects and “reconsider its approval altogether,” concluded the analysis’ co-authors, Ryan Anderson, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and Jamie Bryan Hall, the Center’s Director of Data Analysis.
“Our real-world data represents the actual experiences of women who take the abortion pill in the U.S. today,” the authors told The Daily Wire.
“These women may have preexisting health conditions and may not receive proper care before, during, or after the abortion. The women recruited into the clinical trials were relatively young and healthy, and they received a carefully controlled regimen of care. Frequent in-person visits would have enabled doctors to diagnose and treat any side effects earlier, before they could become serious. This is how it should be for every woman!” they said.
“This is why it’s so important for the FDA, at a minimum, to reinstate its original safety protocols, which more closely resemble the conditions of a clinical trial,” the authors said. “Both proponents and opponents of legalized abortion should be able to support this move to protect women’s health.”
Anderson and Hall also emphasized that pro-life laws are not to blame for complications from the abortion pill, as some abortion advocates have claimed.
“Those who blame the failures of the abortion pill on pro-life laws are deeply mistaken, if not downright dishonest. Every woman should seek medical care in an emergency, and every doctor should provide life-saving care without fear of reprisal,” they said.
Medication abortions are far more common than surgical abortions. Medication abortions made up 63% of all abortions in 2023, up from 31% in 2014, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.
The abortion pill is likely the main factor driving up the country’s total number of abortions in recent years, even in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Abortion advocates have argued that the abortion pill should be more available to order online now that some Republican-led states ban abortion.
Mifepristone was originally approved by the FDA in 2000.
[#item_full_content]
[[{“value”:”
More than one in 20 women need a second abortion attempt after the abortion pill fails, a new analysis of insurance claim data shows.
Over 5% of women had to undergo a repeat abortion attempt within 45 days of taking mifepristone, indicating that the first mifepristone abortion attempt failed, according to an analysis from the Ethics and Public Policy Center released Monday. The Center analyzed insurance claims data from 865,727 mifepristone abortions between 2017 and 2023.
A total of 45,498 women needed a second abortion attempt to complete their abortions after mifepristone failed, the data show. Of those women, 24,563 needed a surgical abortion procedure. Nearly 7,000 women underwent both a second medication abortion attempt and a surgical abortion attempt after their first mifepristone attempt failed, the analysis found.
This is the latest evidence that advocates have misconstrued the safety and efficacy of the abortion pill. An analysis released last month found that more than one in 10 women experienced a “serious adverse event” after taking the mifepristone abortion pill in 2023. This can include hemorrhaging, needing a blood transfusion, an emergency room visit, and even deadly conditions like sepsis.
That is about 22 times higher than what the FDA listed on its label for the brand Mifeprex in 2023. The FDA cited clinical studies saying less than 0.5% of women suffered “serious adverse reactions” to mifepristone.
The two-pill chemical abortion regimen — mifepristone, usually followed by misoprostol — aims to end the life of the unborn baby and expel it from the woman’s uterus. However, the drugs sometimes fail to expel all the fetal tissue, which can cause life-threatening complications.
Nearly 14% of women experience either a serious adverse event or repeat abortion attempt after taking the abortion pill, Monday’s analysis found. The report’s authors concluded that the FDA should immediately reinstate the stronger patient safety protocols it previously had in place for mifepristone.
A few months before Roe v. Wade was overturned, the FDA scrapped the requirement that women must obtain abortion pills in person from a healthcare provider, allowing them to obtain them online through the mail.
The FDA should also mandate reporting of the abortion pill’s side effects and “reconsider its approval altogether,” concluded the analysis’ co-authors, Ryan Anderson, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and Jamie Bryan Hall, the Center’s Director of Data Analysis.
“Our real-world data represents the actual experiences of women who take the abortion pill in the U.S. today,” the authors told The Daily Wire.
“These women may have preexisting health conditions and may not receive proper care before, during, or after the abortion. The women recruited into the clinical trials were relatively young and healthy, and they received a carefully controlled regimen of care. Frequent in-person visits would have enabled doctors to diagnose and treat any side effects earlier, before they could become serious. This is how it should be for every woman!” they said.
“This is why it’s so important for the FDA, at a minimum, to reinstate its original safety protocols, which more closely resemble the conditions of a clinical trial,” the authors said. “Both proponents and opponents of legalized abortion should be able to support this move to protect women’s health.”
Anderson and Hall also emphasized that pro-life laws are not to blame for complications from the abortion pill, as some abortion advocates have claimed.
“Those who blame the failures of the abortion pill on pro-life laws are deeply mistaken, if not downright dishonest. Every woman should seek medical care in an emergency, and every doctor should provide life-saving care without fear of reprisal,” they said.
Medication abortions are far more common than surgical abortions. Medication abortions made up 63% of all abortions in 2023, up from 31% in 2014, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.
The abortion pill is likely the main factor driving up the country’s total number of abortions in recent years, even in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Abortion advocates have argued that the abortion pill should be more available to order online now that some Republican-led states ban abortion.
Mifepristone was originally approved by the FDA in 2000.
“}]]
