The largest safety analysis ever of mifepristone shows that more than 10 percent of women who take the drug experience serious complications, including hemorrhaging, infection, and sepsis. So why isn’t the FDA warning women of the risks?
The Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) has ignited fresh debate over the safety of chemical abortions after its study revealed that more than 1 in 10 women who took the abortion pill mifepristone between 2017 and 2023 suffered significant health complications.
The findings call into question long-held claims by the abortion industry and federal regulators that the abortion pill is overwhelmingly safe.
The sample size included 865,727 women, making it the most extensive analysis of abortion pill safety in U.S. history.
According to the study, which analyzed Medicaid claims data across 17 states, 10.93 percent of women experienced adverse events within 45 days of taking mifepristone. These events included hemorrhage, infection, failed abortion requiring surgical intervention, and in rare cases, sepsis. Almost 41,000 ended up in the emergency room.
This rate of complications is 22 times higher than the less than 0.5 percent risk cited in FDA-approved clinical trials and repeated by pro-abortion organizations. Researchers and pro-life medical professionals say this discrepancy reveals a serious gap in how abortion pill safety is presented to the public.
The study, led by EPPC Director of Data Analysis Jamie Bryan Hall and President Ryan T. Anderson, urges the FDA to reexamine its past research and current regulatory approach to mifepristone.
“This study is the statistical equivalent of a category 5 hurricane hitting the prevailing narrative of the abortion industry. It reveals, based on real-world data, the shocking number of women who suffer serious medical consequences because of the abortion pill,” Anderson wrote.
“The Trump FDA should take immediate action to protect the safety of American women by reinstating the safety regulations that the Obama and Biden Administrations removed,” he added.
Dr. Christina Francis, a board-certified OB-GYN and CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said women deserve fully informed consent regarding the dangers of abortion pills.
“These findings expose the undeniable truth: abortion pills are far riskier than the public has been led to believe,” she said. “Women deserve fully informed consent about the dangers of these drugs, but instead, we see a concerted effort to downplay the risks and fast-track access.”
The pro-life organization Americans United for Life explains how a chemical abortion works: “Mifepristone is a medication that blocks the hormone progesterone, which is necessary for the continuation of pregnancy. This causes the lining of the uterus to break down and the cervix to soften, making it easier for the pregnancy to be expelled. The medication is typically followed by a second drug, misoprostol, which causes contractions to expel the pregnancy.”
As the group points out, the dangers of abortion pills are compounded by the fact that pregnant women no longer require an in-person medical visit to get a prescription for the two-step regimen. Without an examination, it notes, “there is no way for a doctor to know if she is further along than 10 weeks or unknowingly experiencing an ectopic pregnancy.”
The study arrives at a time when medication abortion has become the most common method of abortion in the U.S., now accounting for over half of all abortions.
This rise comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which returned the issue of abortion regulation to the states.
In response, abortion advocates have increasingly turned to chemical abortion methods to circumvent new state-level restrictions.
The FDA has loosened regulations on mifepristone recently, including eliminating the in-person dispensing requirement in 2021. This change allowed abortion pills to be mailed directly to patients without a physical exam, ultrasound, or doctor visit, steps many experts consider essential to ensuring the procedure is medically appropriate.
The research also casts doubt on the transparency and reliability of FDA reporting on abortion pill complications. Critics point out that in 2016, the FDA stopped requiring healthcare providers to report non-fatal adverse events related to mifepristone, making accurate tracking nearly impossible. Without this data, studies like EPPC’s Medicaid claims analysis offer one of the only windows into real-world outcomes.
The FDA has claimed that the medication is backed by over two decades of data showing a low risk of serious complications. Hospitalization rates cited by the agency range from just 0.04 to 0.09 percent, far below what EPPC’s analysis suggests. The EPPC’s study argues that the FDA’s current numbers are based on incomplete data and politically driven policies.
Dr. James Studnicki, the study’s lead author, concluded:
“It’s not enough to say something is ‘safe’ because people stop reporting problems. Our analysis shows that a large and increasing number of women are winding up in emergency rooms, and yet the FDA has looked the other way.”
More than five million women have used the abortion pill in the U.S. since its approval in 2000, revealing the need for increased study and consideration of its effects.
The EPPC’s study reveals a disturbing reality that the abortion industry and its political allies have long tried to hide: Abortion pills are not only deadly for the preborn but also dangerous for the women who take them.
More than 10 percent of women who used mifepristone suffered severe complications, yet these risks are downplayed or outright concealed by those promoting so-called “medication abortion” as safe and routine.
It makes no sense that the FDA would ignore such findings. The agency has a long history of placing warnings on drugs shown to have an increased risk of side effects — or even taking steps to take drugs completely off the market. For example, in 2004, the agency issued a black box warning on the anti-depressant Prozac for teens and children because studies showed evidence of increased risk for suicidal thoughts or behaviors. That same year, the FDA pushed Merck to pull its popular arthritis medication Vioxx off the market after data showed an unexpected and marked risk of heart attacks and strokes.
And in 2020, Zantac and other antacids containing ranitidine and nizatidine were recalled by the FDA because they contained high levels of known carcinogens, though there was no indication at the time that they had actually caused cancer in anyone who had taken the drug for long periods.
So why aren’t chemical abortion drugs and their clear risks of complications treated with the same level of caution and care?
The EPPC study should be a call to action for women’s health advocates to demand transparency and accountability, for the healthcare industry and its regulators to increase common-sense health safeguards and information, and for everyone to advocate for pro-life alternatives that save lives and support women.
As pro-lifers, we already know what the abortion pill does to women, both physically and emotionally, and we cannot ignore the pain, fear, and regret that many experience after these procedures.
Scripture reminds us that every life matters, both the preborn child and the mother. Proverbs 31:8 commands us, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.”
The unborn have no voice, but we do.
We are called to defend them and to also care for the women who are misled into making life-altering decisions about abortion pills without full knowledge of the consequences. Christians must continue building a culture of life where women are fully supported rather than sold a lie in a pill.
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