Although Legal For Now, Is The Abortion Pill Really Safe?

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled Friday to, at least temporarily, preserve access to the abortion-inducing pill mifepristone. This comes as a lawsuit against the drug is working its way through the federal court system ^[1].

The pro-abortion ruling was decided in a 7-2 vote, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito as the dissenting voices. However, despite being legal, is this drug safe? Here are three falsities that may not reach mainstream media.

False Concept 1

Most women taking chemical abortion drugs do not experience serious complications. However, between 2000 and 2021, 4,207 adverse events related to chemical abortions were reported to the FDA. Moreover, the NYT’s own reporting shows that after taking chemical abortion drugs, three to five percent of patients need additional procedures to remove the remaining tissue or terminate the pregnancy. Three to five percent is one in 20 to one in 33 women.

False Concept 2

Mifepristone can legally and safely be distributed through the mail. However, federal law prohibits mailing any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion. Also, there is a great potential for misusing drugs sent through the mail because there is no way to verify who is consuming the medication and whether they are doing so willingly.

False Concept 3

The gestational age at which a woman has a chemical abortion doesn’t matter. However, women who use chemical abortion prior to eight weeks gestation have incomplete abortions about 5% of the time. By ten weeks gestation, incomplete abortions occur up to 10% of the time. The further along in gestation a woman is, the more likely she will have an incomplete abortion which requires surgery.

Additionally, chemical abortions are traumatic.  A mother sees and must personally dispose of the remains of her aborted child, who may be visibly recognizable as a baby. While Planned Parenthood advertises using chemical abortions for up to 11 weeks, the baby already has a head, hands, feet, fingers, and toes.