A recent Associated Press article declared the abortion pill (mifepristone – 200mg) “safe,” despite the drug’s black box warning. Authors Laura Ungar and Matthew Perrone chose to cite heavily pro-abortion sources, failing to interview anyone with an opposing view. While the AP claims to avoid conflicts of interest, the news conglomerate receives support from a foundation which also directly funds abortion.
Associated Press claims to avoid conflicts of interest
Live Action News previously documented that the risks of mifepristone (200mg) triggered the FDA to place it under a safety system called REMS, where it has remained — even under multiple pro-abortion administrations. Under REMS, prescribers of the drug are supposed to have provisions to handle abortion pill failures or complications. Instead of abiding by the regulations, which are policed by those who profit from the drug (Danco and GenBioPro), abortion providers simply instruct women to present to potentially overcrowded emergency rooms.
Danco and the FDA always understood that emergency rooms would be a necessary element in place to treat abortion pill clients.
Biased OB/GYNs
The AP cited abortion activist Ushma Upadhyay (a recipient of multiple awards from the National Abortion Federation) and Pratima Gupta (a practicing abortionist and board member for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – ACOG), while suggesting that all medical professionals support the abortion pill as “safe.”
Yet, the Associated Press failed to interview a single pro-life expert with an opposing view.
“OB-GYNs say a tiny fraction of patients suffer ‘major’ or ‘serious’ adverse events after taking mifepristone,” wrote the AP. “Medical professionals call it ‘among the safest medications’ ever approved by the FDA. But a Christian conservative group that sued the FDA over the drug says it has caused ‘tens of thousands’ of ’emergency complications.’”
That “Christian conservative group” was actually made up of pro-life medical professionals — something Associated Press chose to distort.
OB/GYNs who push abortion pills as “safe” frequently seem to either commit abortions, or have associations with the pro-abortion American College of Obstructions and Gynecologists (ACOG). As Live Action News has documented, ACOG co-signs Big Abortion’s profit making ventures, willingly contorting their own language to get behind unapproved and experimental expansions of chemical abortion.
The Associated Press failed to mention concerns expressed by the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), a pro-life medical association, or speak to any of the thousands of plaintiff doctors who initially filed the lawsuit challenging both the drug’s approval and expansions.
Last year, however, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiff doctors in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM) lawsuit did not have standing to sue. Since then, three states likely to have standing have chosen to intervene and file a complaint.
Mifepristone’s Black Box Warning
The AP reported:
The prescribing information included in the packaging for mifepristone tablets lists slightly different statistics for what it calls ‘serious adverse reactions.’ It cites ranges for how frequently various complications occur: 0.03% to 0.5% for transfusion; 0.2% for sepsis and 0.04% to 0.6% for hospitalization related to medication abortions. The ranges reflect findings across various relevant studies, experts said.
And by “experts,” they mean pro-abortion ones. Left out of the AP story is the fact that mifepristone’s own 2023 label contains a black box warning for sepsis, bleeding, and other life-threatening risks.
“Mifepristone results in a completed abortion 97.4% of the time, according to U.S. studies cited in the FDA label. But in 2.6% of cases, a surgical intervention is needed. And 0.7% of the time, the pregnancy continues,” the AP claimed.
This is no small number, as a nearly 3% failure rate would result in more than 19,000 women needing additional care — possibly even emergency care, since a failed abortion can result in infection which can lead to sepsis.
Published percentages for ER visits on mifepristone’s 2023 label indicate that 2.9 to 4.6% of women who take abortion drugs end up in the emergency room, indicating that abortion pill ER visits could be in the tens of thousands every year. In addition, the FDA’s medication guide acknowledges that as many as seven percent (7%) of women will need surgery after taking mifepristone “to stop bleeding” or to complete the abortion.
These percentages, against the 642,000 annual abortion pill data from 2023, could result in 39,000 to 45,000 incidents each year.
A previously-documented Gynuity Health Projects (GHP) telabortion study also found that six percent (6%) of participants (70 out of 1,157) faced complications from the abortion pill, resulting in ER or urgent care visits.
Mifepristone Jan 2023 label shows percentage of women taking abortion pill visit ER
In addition, emergency department staff warned that women are presenting to ERs with undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies after taking abortion pills. Additionally, some state data indicated complications may be on the rise.
Biased study and authors cited
“The definition that scientists generally use for serious adverse events includes blood transfusions, major surgery, hospital admissions and death, said Ushma Upadhyay, one of the authors of that 2015 study,” the AP claimed.
Randall K. O’Bannon, Ph.D. previously disputed the study’s claim (read at Live Action News).
That study from Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) was funded by “an anonymous foundation” which has in other studies been shown to be the Buffett Foundation, one of the original investors in the abortion pill. Buffett is also a primary financier of the Bixby Center’s Ryan Residency Program at University of California San Francisco (UCSF), an abortionist training program, and funds ACOG.
ANSIRH was founded by abortionist Felicia H. Stewart and is funded by the Packard Foundation. Packard provided early financial assistance to the abortion pill’s U.S. manufacturer, Danco.
The study’s authors are tied to groups that promote, train, or commit abortions, including:
- Sheila Desai, whose online bio says she “led and contributed to research at the Guttmacher Institute” a former “special affiliate” of Planned Parenthood. Desai was associated with ANSIRH and received awards from the Society of Family Planning and the National Abortion Federation.
- Tracey Weitz co-founded ANSIRH before leaving to become the Buffett Foundation’s director of U.S. programs in 2014. Her LinkedIn page reveals past associations with UCSF, ACLU, and Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, which was later disaffiliated from PPFA for serious problems.
- Ushma Upadhyay is a University of California San Francisco (UCSF) professor who advocated a “no test/no touch” protocol for the abortion pill, which eliminated important preliminary labs, testing, and ultrasounds — potentially placing women in harm’s way. She also works with ANSIRH and has argued that the FDA should “remove as many barriers as possible” from the abortion pill. Upadhyay oversaw the biased “California Home Abortion by Telehealth (CHAT) Study.”
- Daniel Grossman is a vocal proponent of expanding abortion and an abortionist with multiple conflicts of interest surrounding abortion pill studies. Grossman served as VP of Research for Ibis Reproductive Health, which was being funded by Danco. Today, Grossman is a senior adviser at Ibis, which was still directly funded by Danco as recently as 2020. Grossman has also served as a consultant to Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Another study cited by the AP purportedly showed that telehealth abortions posed few health risks. Live Action News previously found that those study authors were also heavily pro-abortion and funded by organizations which support abortion. One of the study authors disclosed that she received “personal fees” from Danco and was a “consultant” for the company.
A 2018 study cited by the AP was also authored by biased researchers and paid for with a grant from the Society of Family Planning (SFP). Live Action News previously documented that SFP was founded in 2005 with a generous contribution from the Packard Foundation; it receives millions from the Buffett Foundation. Over past years, abortion philanthropist and abortion pill investor Warren Buffett (the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation) has poured over $15.3 million into SFP.
AP dismisses abortion pill-related ER visits
Like other media outlets that favor abortion, the Associated Press claimed “ER visits don’t always reflect big problems,” later citing Upadhyay in claiming that “Some people may go there after a medication abortion because they want to be checked out or have questions but don’t have a doctor.”
Upadhyay also claimed that women “don’t want to go to their primary care provider about their abortion” because of stigma.
The AP didn’t mention how the prescriber agreement (March 2023) for the abortion pill requires prescribers to have the “[a]bility to provide surgical intervention in cases of incomplete abortion or severe bleeding or have made plans to provide such care through others, and be able to assure patient access to medical facilities equipped to provide blood transfusions and resuscitation, if necessary.”
In 2016, the Obama FDA removed requirements to report all non-fatal adverse events for the abortion pill under the safety system known as REMS, then requiring only deaths to be reported. Those would be just the deaths the manufacturer is made aware of.
To circumvent that, bad actors inside the industry tell abortion clients not to call them, but to instead present to emergency rooms if experiencing abortion pill complications. Some even suggest that clients lie and claim they are experiencing natural miscarriages.
Daniel Grossman has even suggested that ER staff should falsify medical documents to cover up abortion pill complications.
“The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation [RWIF],” the article webpage states. Yet RWIF recently granted $4 million to the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) and has funded Planned Parenthood, the University of California, and others — another fact the AP neglected to state.
