US study: complications caused by abortion pill for more than 10% of women
A study published by the American think tank The Ethics and Public Policy Center reveals that complications occur in more than 10% of women who have used the abortion pill Mifeprex (the brand name for mifepristone) as part of a medical abortion in the United States. This figure is 22 times higher than indicated on the package leaflet (less than 0.5%). Yet this pill is presented as ‘safe and effective’ by the marketing laboratory.
A pill that endangers women's health
These are the findings of the study, which analysed insurance claims data on 865,727 abortions prescribed mifepristone between 2017 and 2023. The analysis shows that, within 45 days of a mifepristone abortion, 10.93% of women suffer from sepsis, infection, haemorrhage or ‘another serious or life-threatening adverse event’. As the authors of the study point out, while more than 5 million American women have used this abortion pill since it was approved in 2000, it has become urgent to ‘understand the risks and harms to women of chemical abortion in general and mifepristone in particular’.
Fewer precautions to facilitate access to abortion
Mifepristone, developed by a French company, was approved in 2000 in the United States by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) via a special procedure reserved for treatments of ‘serious or life-threatening conditions that offer significant therapeutic benefit to patients over existing therapies’. This meant that unwanted pregnancy had to be considered a ‘serious or life-threatening illness’, and the FDA assumed that no other intervention could remedy the situation. What's more, the safeguards introduced by the FDA in 2000 to approve the use of Mifeprex have all been removed in 2023: the patient no longer has to see a doctor, she can administer the drugs herself and she no longer has to be informed of any possible adverse effects. The time allowed for an abortion using Mifeprex has also been increased from 7 to 10 weeks' gestation. Chemical (or medical) abortions account for around two-thirds of all abortions in the United States. In view of this finding, the researchers in the study are calling on the FDA to re-establish stricter safety protocols and to require the laboratory to ‘report all side effects in full’.
This finding that the effects of the abortion pill on women's health are underestimated should be a wake-up call to the health authorities in countries such as Belgium, which rely on chemical abortion to facilitate access. The Ecolo party's proposal is to ‘facilitate fully or partially self-managed abortions’. In the first case, the woman ‘manages all the stages of the medicinal procedure herself’, which can therefore take place entirely at home. In 2023 in Belgium, chemical abortions accounted for almost 44% of all abortions.
