Abortion pill’s health dangers grossly underreported, policy group says

 By Scott Barkley - Posted at Baptist Press:

Published April 29, 2025

NASHVILLE (BP) – The number of women suffering from “serious adverse reactions” to the abortion pill mifepristone could be as much as 22 times higher than the rate claimed by the drug’s manufacturer, said a cultural watchdog group in a report published Monday (April 28).

Approved by the FDA in 2000, mifepristone (also known as RU-486) accounted for 53 percent of all abortions in the U.S. by 2020. It became available for mail delivery the next year as the FDA sought to lift restrictions deemed unnecessary, and by 2023 the pill was used in 63 percent of U.S. abortions.

The Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), based in Washington, D.C., alleges that the claim on the drug’s label of “less than 0.5 percent” of serious adverse effects is severely misrepresented, as it received that figure from 10 clinical trials of 30,966 participants. The EPPC’s testing from “real-world insurance claims” for 865,727 mifepristone abortions brought a serious adverse rate of 10.93 percent.

“In light of this research, we urge the FDA to reinstate earlier, stronger patient safety protocols and reconsider its approval of mifepristone altogether. Women deserve better than the abortion pill,” read the report.

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