The Abortion Pill
By Ray Ross
The adverse effects of mifepristone abortions are more significant than often portrayed, with growing evidence of higher real-world complication rates compared to pharmaceutical and clinical trial claims. Insurance-based analyses and post-market surveillance reveal a complex picture of post-abortion infections, hemorrhages, incomplete abortions, and other complications.
FDA and Manufacturer Claims
Pharmaceutical manufacturers and the FDA characterize mifepristone as having a low risk of serious complications. According to the FDA’s Post-Marketing Adverse Events Summary (through December 2024), 36 deaths have been reported among approximately 7.5 million U.S. users, representing 0.00048% of total cases. Of these:
• 22 deaths were possibly or probably related to abortion outcomes:
• 10 due to Clostridium-related sepsis
• 2 sepsis cases with negative blood cultures
• 1 sepsis case with no data
• 2 toxic shock-like syndromes
• 1 septic shock from necrotizing fasciitis
• Other cases involved hemorrhage and undetermined infections.
Real-World Complication Rates from Insurance Data
In a recently completed study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) -https://eppc.org/publication/the-abortion-pill-harms-womeninsurance-data-reveals-repeated-abortionattempts-due-to-high-failure-rate/ - based on 865,727 insurance claims from 2017–2023, contradicts claims of minimal risk. It found:
• 10.93% (1 in 10) of patients experienced a serious adverse event.
• 6.3% required follow-up surgical interventions due to incomplete abortions.
• Emergency or hospital visits occurred in roughly 1 in 10 patients.
• Common issues included hemorrhage, infection, and tissue retention.
By contrast, the Guttmacher Institute and other pro-abortion groups typically cite serious event rates below 0.5% based on clinical trial data rather than real-world insurance datasets.
Types of Infections and Complications
Mifepristone’s risk profile includes both infectious and noninfectious adverse events. Documented infections include:
• Clostridium sordellii sepsis: Rare but often fatal anaerobic bacterial infections.
• Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium septicum: Associated with toxic shock-like syndromes.
• Necrotizing fasciitis and toxic shock symptoms without typical warning signs.
• Secondary genital tract infections, including endometritis and pelvic inflammatory disease.
• Common bacterial infections, such as E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus, triggered by retained fetal tissue.
Other major noninfectious complications include:
• Hemorrhage: Up to 8% of users experience prolonged bleeding. A subset may require blood transfusions.
• Incomplete abortion: The leading cause for emergency follow-up care and subsequent surgical evacuation. Ectopic pregnancies, occasionally ruptured before diagnosis.
• Psychological distress and delayed follow-up due to misinterpretation of symptoms.
Conclusion
While we celebrate the continual closing of Planned Parenthood facilities, the use of the abortion pill has exploded. The true number of adverse events is being hidden. Mothers are not only killing their babies, but they’re also damaging their own health. Furthermore, we have no data on post abortion mental health outcomes. In short, this drug should never have been FDA approved and the FDA now needs to take it off the market.