Senate Hearing on Medication Abortion Ignores Decades of Evidence & Safe Use

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Starting with its original framing, today’s hearing on medication abortion ignored decades of rigorous research on the safety and effectiveness of mifepristone and misoprostol, the drugs commonly used for medication abortion, and was designed to sow fear, fuel efforts to restrict access to abortion and spread misinformation, reproductive health experts from Defend Public Health said today.

“The hearing’s title, ‘Protecting Women: Exposing the Dangers of Chemical Abortion Drugs,’  announced from the start that this wasn’t an honest inquiry – we have decades of data and real-world experience showing the safety of medication abortion,” said Kelly Blanchard, DPH Coordinating Committee member and President, Ibis Reproductive Health. “Mifepristone and misoprostol are essential medicines and many people seeking abortion care choose a medication abortion option.”

In 2000 – after more than a decade of safe use in Europe and other countries – the FDA established that the protocol combining the medications mifepristone and misoprostol is a safe and highly effective method of pregnancy termination. Numerous reviews of the data since then and changes to the label and service delivery protocols are backed up by excellent science. Medication abortion successfully terminates a pregnancy about 95% or more of the time, with a 0.4% risk of major complications, and an associated mortality rate of less than 0.001 percent (0.00064%). Despite fear-mongering from anti-abortion rights activists, studies show that the risks of complications from abortion are significantly less than other common procedures such as wisdom tooth removal. Medication abortion  has been used safely by more than seven million women in the United States alone, and many people seeking abortion care choose medication abortion – more than 60% of abortions in the US are medication abortions.

“It was clear from the opening comments that this hearing was about advancing abortion bans and continuing to restrict access to high quality sexual and reproductive health care, not about advancing health or wellbeing. We are grateful that Dr. Verma participated and want to lift up her important statement that the science on the safety of medication abortion is ‘long standing and settled,’” said Blanchard.   

“People seeking abortion care – like people seeking all types of health care – deserve accurate information and access to clinically proven, safe and effective options” Blanchard said. “We should not be distracted by efforts to ban abortion through junk reports and distortions of the data.  Medication abortion safety and effectiveness is backed up by hundreds of rigorous studies and decades of use.”  

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Defend Public Health is a volunteer-driven network of public health researchers, healthcare workers, advocates and allies fighting to protect the health of all from the Trump administration's cruel attacks on proven, science-based public health policies. We believe that everyone has the right to what they need for a healthy life, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity.
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