Nearly one in nine women suffer serious infection, hemorrhaging, or health risks within 45 days of a chemical abortion, according to the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s report, “The Abortion Pill Harms Women.”
This statistic — 10.93 percent of women who had serious adverse events within 45 days after a chemical abortion — is at least 22 times higher than the “less than 0.5 percent” reported on the FDA drug warning label.
The new data demonstrates the outright lies, deception, and indifference of the abortion industry that claims to defend women. Instead, the industry sells drugs that statistically harm nearly one of every nine women who take them.
“Simply stated, mifepristone, as used in real-world conditions, is not ‘safe and effective.’” the EPPC report concluded.
Danco Laboratories advertises Mifeprex as “the safe and effective abortion pill” and boasts more than 5 million U.S. women have taken the pill since its approval in 2000, according to the EPPC report. In 2023, nearly two-thirds of abortions, 63%, were chemical, according to research from the Guttmacher Institute.
Many women who believe the “my body, my choice” narrative may have made a different choice had they known accurate statistics of the risks. Not only are these women left uneducated on the risks such drugs pose, but they are also left without clear direction or medical counsel after the removal of numerous FDA requirements under President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden.
Previously, the FDA required three in-person appointments with a doctor before prescribing a chemical abortion drug. The drugs were also administered in a medical facility under a physician’s supervision. During Obama and Biden’s administration, the FDA changed these policies under the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), according to EPPC’s report. Under Obama, the maximum gestational age for prescribing mifepristone increased from seven weeks to 10 weeks. The number of in-person doctor visits decreased from a minimum of three to one. Both previous requirements of a physician’s prescription and in office administration were dropped. The FDA also abolished the required in-office follow-up appointment and necessary report of adverse events.
Under Biden, the FDA eradicated the few remaining policies designed to protect women, removing any requirement for an in-person doctor visit and allowing the delivery of the drugs directly to the woman’s address, outside of a medical facility.
Under the claim of helping women, the abortion industry has grown its platform to a remote, tele-health mail house service that offers women chemical drugs with no supervision or follow-up. Planned Parenthood advertises chemical abortions as safer than over-the-counter medication.
“Medication abortion is very safe,” Planned Parenthood’s website reports. “In fact, it’s safer than many other medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra.”
If nearly one in nine people reported adverse health risks and complications from Tylenol, the drug would be banned, recalled, and reevaluated.
EPPC’s data is based on actual health insurance claims between 2017 and 2023 with a total of 865,727 chemical abortions — 28 times that of the FDA’s clinical pool. EPPC’s research team included data scientists, analysts, engineers, obstetricians, and gynecologists.
“This study is the statistical equivalent of a category 5 hurricane hitting the prevailing narrative of the abortion industry,” EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson said in a statement. “It reveals, based on real world data, the shocking number of women who suffer serious medical consequences because of the abortion pill. 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.”
While the abortion industry claims to be pro-women, this lack of concern for such serious risks demonstrates the opposite. And yet, is anyone surprised?
Abortion-on-demand resulted directly from the feminist lie that, to gain equality with men, women must oppose their natural biology. The aim was never women’s happiness or well-being. The aim was sex without consequence. Of course, anyone who rejects the clear biblical and moral guidelines of sex within marriage, praises the sexual autonomy the chemical abortion pill provides. Sex-addicted men, presenting themselves as “pro-choice,” faithfully support their female partner to get an abortion, without any regard to her well-being, health, or safety, as Live Action demonstrates.
Women believe abortion is their only option. No doctor will tell them otherwise because the Biden FDA took the doctor out of the equation. In fact, no doctor will likely supervise them as they take high-risk medication or even follow-up afterwards. Many doctors monitor a patient’s health and recovery after a mere antibiotic prescription. But after a woman has undergone several days of intense bleeding and cramping, she may not even receive a call or survey to assess her health.
A new “problem that has no name” is here, and it’s not Betty Friedan’s critique of women in the home. It's outright deception that falsely advertises to millions of women the “safety” of abortion.
The guise of this industry as “pro-women” could not be more hypocritical. A society that truly values and defends women should outcry at their mistreatment.
As the EPPC report concluded, “Women deserve better than the abortion pill.”
Women deserve the truth.
Michaela Estruth is a senior studying History and journalism at Hillsdale College, where she is the senior editor of Hillsdale College’s The Collegian and host of various radio shows. She graduated from WORLD Magazine’s World Journalism Institute in 2022 and has written and edited for the Colson Center.
