Live Action has just released a stunning investigation of the abortion pill in a new exposé, “Abortion Pill Kills,” which reveals the history of the abortion pill and the abortion industry’s plan to “de-medicalize” abortion, promoting dangerous do-it-yourself, at-home abortions. The first video release in the campaign, “The True Story Behind the Abortion Pill,” reveals the dangers and the major players behind this deadly drug, once known as RU-486. Live Action also released a full investigative report here, and a summarized version of the report here.
In addition, Live Action and a coalition of pro-life groups are calling on FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn to remove the abortion pill from the U.S. market entirely.
Loosening Regulations
The abortion industry has spent years arguing that legal abortion is necessary to avoid so-called “back-alley” abortions. Yet they’ve since begun for regulations against abortion to be completely dropped, including making the abortion pill accessible at home, without a doctor’s supervision. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a regulation in place known as a “risk evaluation mitigation strategy” (REMS), which requires the abortion pill to be prescribed and dispensed at a medical facility by a qualified medical professional. Yet in the past several years, REMS has been increasingly skirted through use of a no-test protocol and through expanding clinical trials, while abortionists call for the abortion pill to be “demedicalized.” And in the meantime, abortion advocates have been encouraging illegal uses of the abortion pill to get around REMS.
Danger to Women
Despite the dangers of the abortion drug, the abortion industry has continued to insist on its availability later and later in pregnancy, as well as the total elimination of REMS. This is despite the possible risks; according to the Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the abortion pill has a four times higher risk of complications than surgical abortion in the first trimester. Since its approval by the FDA, four million preborn children have been killed, while there have been 24 reported maternal deaths, and over 4,000 FDA reports of adverse events from women experiencing hemorrhage, excruciating abdominal pain, and severe life-threatening infections. The true number of adverse events is likely even higher, considering abortion manufacturers have only been required to report adverse events as reported to them by abortion facilities.
Emergency rooms are not required to report adverse events to the FDA, yet a woman experiencing serious complications is more likely to seek care at a hospital than at an abortion facility—meaning the true number of adverse events likely far exceeds 4,000 cases.
Readers are invited to sign the petition urging FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn to exercise his authority under 21 CFR § 2.5 to classify the abortion pill as an “imminent hazard to the public health” that poses a “significant threat of danger,” and to remove the abortion pill from the U.S. market. If the abortion pill is further deregulated, more women will be put in danger, and it is long past time to take action.
Editor’s Note, 4/18/21: The FDA has received reports of serious adverse events in women who took Mifeprex. As of December 31, 2018, there were reports of 24 deaths of women associated with Mifeprex since the product was approved in September 2000, including two cases of ectopic pregnancy resulting in death; and several cases of severe systemic infection (also called sepsis), including some that were fatal.
The adverse events cannot with certainty be causally attributed to mifepristone because of concurrent use of other drugs, other medical or surgical treatments, co-existing medical conditions, and information gaps about patient health status and clinical management of the patient. A summary report of adverse events that reflects data through December 31, 2018 is here.
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