A bombshell study released this week by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) claims that the abortion pill mifepristone, long promoted as “safe and effective,” may be significantly more dangerous than reported by the FDA. Drawing from real-world insurance claims data spanning more than 865,000 cases, researchers found that over 1 in 10 women experienced serious complications following a medication abortion—22 times higher than official figures previously indicated.
The study, led by EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson and Director of Data Analysis Jamie Bryan Hall, analyzed data from 2017 to 2023 and identified a 10.93% rate of serious adverse events, including sepsis, hemorrhaging, infection, and emergency hospitalization within 45 days of a mifepristone abortion. In contrast, the current FDA-approved drug label, based on clinical trials involving just under 31,000 participants, claims a complication rate of less than 0.5%.
“Contrary to what some may claim, the abortion pill is not like Tylenol,” Anderson and Hall said in a statement to Breitbart News. “We find that one out of every ten women who takes the abortion pill will suffer from a serious adverse event… A third to a half of these women will then go to the ER or even be hospitalized as a result.”
The study asserts that the FDA’s current safety data on mifepristone is outdated, based in part on trials going back as far as 1983. By analyzing an all-payer claims database—representing 692,873 women who had one or more mifepristone abortions—the researchers found 94,605 adverse events that would not typically appear in the FDA’s limited reporting requirements.
In 2016, the FDA stopped requiring the reporting of all adverse events associated with mifepristone, except for deaths, a move critics say was aimed at politically shielding the drug rather than safeguarding women’s health.
When originally approved in 2000, mifepristone was restricted under strict conditions: it could only be dispensed in person by a qualified physician, with multiple office visits, ultrasound verification of pregnancy stage, and proximity to emergency care facilities. Those safeguards have been increasingly loosened under Democratic administrations.
As of 2023, under the Biden FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), the abortion pill can be prescribed via telehealth and mailed to patients, even up to 10 weeks into pregnancy. Critics argue that this deregulation exposes women to increased risk, particularly from undetected ectopic pregnancies or misdated gestational age.
The EPPC study found that approximately 1 in 300 women were diagnosed with ectopic pregnancy after taking the abortion pill—conditions that, if untreated, can be life-threatening.
Authors of the study emphasized the stark contrast in complication rates between mifepristone and other widely used medications. “Advocates frequently claim the abortion pill is just as safe as Tylenol,” they said. “But 1 in 10 women taking the abortion pill experience a serious adverse event, whereas it’s in the range of 1 in 10,000, conservatively speaking, for Tylenol.”
They argue that if other drugs showed similar complication rates, they would face strict oversight or even removal from the market.
The study’s findings come amid escalating legal and political battles over medication abortion. With 63% of all abortions in the U.S. now conducted via pills, the debate over safety and access has become central to post-Roe abortion policy.
Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has signaled support for greater transparency around abortion pill data. At his confirmation hearing, Kennedy told Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) that “we need to understand the safety of every drug — mifepristone and every other drug,” and criticized the lack of adverse event reporting.
The study authors are urging the FDA to reinstate its original safety protocols for mifepristone, including physician oversight, mandatory reporting, and tighter gestational limits.
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Can the drug manufacturere of this pill be personally sued? Or are they protected like most other Pharmas “Use at your own risk”
Ok, it’s YOUR body. Due what you want, but don’t SUE anyone for your bad decisions.