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An abortion drug study touted by the New York Times is problematic. Here’s why.

Abortion PillAbortion Pill·By Bettina di Fiore

An abortion drug study touted by the New York Times is problematic. Here’s why.

The New York Times recently reported on a study published in the journal “Obstetrics & Gynecology” regarding so-called “self-managed medication abortion.” According to the New York Times, “An overwhelming majority of women were able to end unwanted pregnancies with abortion medications on their own and without additional medical procedures, even if they were well beyond the first trimester[.]” 

However, this “overwhelming majority” of women who “ended unwanted pregnancies” past the first trimester literally refers to a minuscule study sample of 32 women.

The Times’ headline, which highlights the alleged effectiveness of misoprostol-only abortion after the tenth week of gestation, refers to a similarly tiny sample of 36 women.

In 2020, the most recent year for which comprehensive data is available, 53% of the 2,548 abortions completed daily were so-called “medication” (abortion pill) abortions; in other words, approximately 1,350 preborn lives are ended via the abortion pill every day in the U.S., or 492,911 per year. Drawing conclusions based on the experiences of 32 women – a number equivalent to approximately .0065% of the total number of women who take the abortion pill annually – is simply unsound. Drawing conclusions based on a sample of 36 women is no less ridiculous.

 

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That didn’t stop abortionist Daniel Grossman – who works as a senior advisor for Ibis Reproductive Health, which is directly funded by abortion pill manufacturer Danco Laboratories – from stating: “This paper adds to previous research indicating that self-managed abortion with medications is safe and effective, including after 12 weeks of pregnancy.” 

The study in question followed women in Argentina, Nigeria, and an unnamed Southeast Asian country who sought out the services of so-called “abortion accompaniment” organizations. Women took either the standard mifepristone and misoprostol abortion pill regimen or took misoprostol alone and were followed for three weeks after their ingestion of the abortion-inducing drugs. Gestational ages of the children killed by pill ranged between nine and 22 weeks. The FDA has only approved the abortion pill regimen for use up to 10 weeks in the U.S.

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Media fawning over flawed studies purporting to prove the safety and efficacy of abortion-inducing drugs is nothing new. However, the mainstream media consistently fail to acknowledge the most obvious problem with characterizing any drug that induces an abortion as “safe”: the fact that these drugs kill innocent human beings.

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