More than one in 20 women undergo secondary abortions after the abortion pills they initially ingest fail, according to just-published analysis.
The new study from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which CBN News has previously reported on, found more than 5% of women had to pursue a repeat abortion within 45 days of taking mifepristone, the leading abortion-inducing pill. The data came from an analysis of insurance claims from 865,727 mifepristone abortions between 2017 and 2023.
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A total of 45,498 women needed a second abortion after the pill failed to terminate their pregnancies. Of those women, 24,563 pursued a surgical abortion and close to 7,000 underwent a second round of medication and surgical terminations.
This new information comes on the heels of another study that found more than one in 10 women faced “serious adverse event[s]” after taking mifepristone in 2023. That analysis, commissioned by the Foundation for the Restoration of America, revealed about 11.2% of women suffered critical health complications, which could include hemorrhaging, the need for blood transfusions, emergency room visits, or sepsis.
The EPPC study showed similar results, which are about 22 times higher than what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration listed on its label for the brand name Mifeprex in 2023.
Ryan Anderson and Jamie Bryan Hall, the authors behind the EPPC research, are urging the FDA “to reinstate earlier, stronger patient safety protocols and reconsider its approval of mifepristone altogether” because “women deserve better than the abortion pill.”
“Simply stated, mifepristone, as used in real-world conditions, is not ‘safe and effective,'” they added.
This issue is important given the number of women who have pursued self-managed abortions via the pill has risen significantly since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that gave nationwide legal cover for abortion.
Medication-induced abortions are also generally more common than surgical procedures. According to the Guttmacher Institute, pill-based abortions made up 63% of all abortions in 2023, up from 31% in 2014. The FDA first approved mifepristone in 2000.
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