Chemical Abortion

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Chemical Abortion (also known as RU-486, medication abortion, at-home abortion, self-managed abortion, and pill abortion) is the abortion of a preborn baby typically in the first trimester using powerful drugs called Mifepristone and Misoprostol. This type of abortion makes up more than half of all abortions in the United States and has killed 36 women and injured thousands more since its legalization in 2000.

To read one of these sad stories, see this recent 2024 case of a mother dying in Georgia after taking these deadly pills.

The following video is a non-graphic explanation of how Chemical Abortion works, as expressed by a former abortionist...

How Chemical Abortion Differs from Birth Control

Sadly, the abortion lobby is actively trying to muddy the differences between Chemical Abortion and birth control pills. There is a similarity in that a woman consumes a pill in order to avoid bearing a child. But that is where the similarities end.

Hormonal birth control (pills, implants, IUDs, or injections) is not a guaranteed abortifacient. That is, while it is capable of ending the life of a very new human (and says so on the box), its primary function is not to do so. Hormonal contraception works, in layman's terms, via four lines of defenses.

Hormonal contraception is administered constantly to suppress a woman's fertility. The four defenses against pregnancy (in order) include: Suppressing Ovulation, Thickening of Cervical Fluid, Changing Movement of the Fallopian Tubes, and Thinning of the Uterine Lining. That last line of defense, the thinning of the endometrium, is the part that can be abortifacient. If the first three defenses fail and a new human is conceived, the new human (called a blastocyst at that stage) may not be able to implant and will die as a result. Because of the possibility of abortion, consistent pro-life advocates oppose its use.

On the other hand, Chemical Abortion is not a preventative attempt at all. Human offspring has already been created, implanted, and is living and developing. Chemical Abortion is the intentional termination of that human life within the first trimester by blocking necessary hormones to end preborn life and then stimulating the expulsion of the baby's remains.

Chemical Abortion's Health Risks to Women

When the first pill of the Chemical Abortion regimen, Mifepristone, was approved for abortifacient use in 2000, the FDA was working with faulty, 40-year-old safety data which claimed that the drug only resulted in serious complications "less than 0.5%" of the time.

However, a bombshell new 2025 study done by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) exposed a shocking reality: the actual risk for women who take Mifepristone is about 22x higher than that initial data claimed, with 1 in 10 women experiencing sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging or other serious problems.

When Mifepristone was approved to end the lives of babies, even the Clinton Administration knew it was dangerous for women and imposed common-sense safety standards for mothers taking these pills, like requiring an in-person office visit and ultrasound. Yet, in 2021, the Biden Administration’s FDA removed all of these common-sense safety standards for mothers.

In addition to this recent study, we already know that...

  1. Chemical Abortion Pills are 10x more dangerous than surgical abortion.

  2. 36 women have died from Chemical Abortion Pills, as reported by the FDA.

  3. Every year, over 600,000 babies are killed by Chemical Abortion Pills in the U.S.

  4. Chemical Abortion Pills are the most common method of abortion, at more than 60%.

  5. 40+ tons of chemically-tainted medical waste — human tissue, placenta, and blood — are flushed into U.S. water systems each year due to Chemical Abortion Pills.

Side effects and/or complications for mothers who undergo Chemical Abortions (excluding psychological impacts) include:

  • pain, possibly severe
  • heavy and/or prolonged bleeding for multiple weeks
  • fever
  • infection
  • incomplete abortion (requiring surgical follow-up)
  • nausea and vomiting
  • diarrhea
  • feeling dizzy or having a headache
  • short-lasting hot flashes
  • hemorrhage
  • blood clots
  • undetected ectopic pregnancy, which is life-threatening
  • permanent infertility, if an Rh negative mother is not administered RhoGAM as is done with dangerous "no-test" abortions and telemedicine Chemical Abortions
  • maternal death

A 2018 study in Sweden, where abortion is legal and not altogether controversial, reported:

  • "Complications occurred in 7.3% of the medical abortions < 12 weeks. Over time, the rate of complications for medical abortions < 12 weeks increased from 4.2% in 2008 to 8.2% in 2015. [...] The most common complication (57%) related to medical abortions < 12 weeks was incomplete abortions, which occurred 153 times, comprising 4.1% of all medical abortions."

Watch our short Chemical Abortion docuseries here.

How is Chemical Abortion Regulated?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory entities have proven that they are not interested in regulating Chemical Abortion drugs. In 2021, the abortion lobby succeeded in pressuring the FDA to remove safety protocols (called REMs– Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) to make it easier to sell the deadly pills by cutting out health and safety standards. This puts women at risk of injury, infection, lost fertility, and even death.

Regulation of these abortion drugs is abysmal across the board. Abortion facilities nationwide advertise the pills up to varying gestational ages, including those that exceed the FDA's safety recommendation of 70 days (10 weeks) LMP. If you search "medical abortion" online, you'll find results containing many different assertions as to the cutoff for "safe" Chemical Abortion, ranging anywhere from 5 weeks to 15+ weeks.

The Bias in Chemical Abortion Research

The disregard for women's safety is blatant in research about Chemical Abortion, too. A recent "retrospective case study of abortions at 13 or more weeks gestation provided by Women on Web between 2016 and 2019," for instance, turned up some frightening results.

After buying mifepristone and misoprostol online and taking them at home...

  • 10% of women reported a continuing pregnancy.
  • 29% reported adverse events (heavy bleeding, fever).
  • 43% needed to seek subsequent medical help from a health provider.
  • 18% of all cases required a subsequent surgical abortion.

These are not good numbers. Yet the abortion-friendly researchers (including Rebecca Gomperts, the abortionist who founded Women on Web, an online distributor of Chemical Abortion drugs, whether its legal or not) concluded, "Provision through telemedicine at 13 to 15 weeks appears safe and effective."

They go on to say, "Limited data suggest that medical abortion through telemedicine services may be a safe option through 15 weeks gestation in settings where there is ready access to the formal health system."

Apparently, nearly half of women needing to seek medical care afterwards is a statistic they're comfortable with - and then, they have the gall to suggest that second-trimester Chemical Abortion is safe. As long as you live very near to a hospital, of course.

In a different study, 1000 women who attempted Chemical Abortions were surveyed afterwards for adverse outcomes. The results were similarly concerning:

  • 7 of them reported needing a blood transfusion afterwards.
  • 26 reported needing antibiotics for an infection.
  • For 50 women, the drugs failed and a surgical abortion was sought.
  • 93 reported experiencing any symptom for which they were advised to seek medical advice, and, of these, 87 sought attention.

Yet still, the researchers here conclude that Chemical Abortion at home is "highly effective." In fact, they say that "outcomes compare favourably with in clinic protocols." The risk of Chemical Abortion takes a turn for the worse when women are sent away to deal with it alone, but the fact that it's comparably dangerous when under medical supervision isn't good news for women, either.

HIPAA-compliant analysis of health insurance claims of more than 865,727 prescriptions for Chemical Abortion Pills from 2017 to 2023 proves:

1. Nearly 11% of Chemical Abortions between 2017 and 2023 resulted in adverse events such as infection, hemorrhage, or sepsis. 

2. This adverse event rate is approximately 22 times higher than what is documented by the FDA.

3. From 1999 to 2015, 35% of mothers who took Chemical Abortion Pills visited the emergency room within 30 days. 

4. The rate of emergency room visits for Chemical Abortion Pill-related complications increased by 507% during this period.

 

Deceiving Women and Bailing on Old Rhetoric

For most of the intervening decades between today and the nationwide legalization of abortion via Roe v. Wade in 1973, abortion messaging has been something along the lines of, "Abortion isn't good, but it should be available just in case. But it isn't birth control, and it's pretty irresponsible to have more than one."

For today's outspoken abortion supporters, however, that line of thinking is ancient history. Abortion is now promoted as good, normal, and acceptable to use as birth control. Consider an October 2021 Atlantic article that encouraged people to "stockpile abortion pills" after buying them online from Rebecca Gomperts and her Women on Web Chemical Abortion empire.

The rise of Chemical Abortion is decisive proof that abortion vendors' mission is money, and their plan is to abandon women to whatever happens next. They fight to remove safety regulations, ignore research that says women are hurt by it, and even advise women to lie to their doctors if the Chemical Abortion goes awry and they need to go to the emergency room.

In another piece for The Atlantic, it is noted: "However, if women using these regimens experience heavy bleeding or some other complication — as about 3 percent of women have — they are generally advised to go to a hospital and say they had a miscarriage." To clarify, 3% of women who had Chemical Abortions in 2023 was 19,281.

The abortion lobby formally instructs women who take powerful drugs by themselves at home to go to the ER and lie to doctors about what's wrong with them. With only false information to work with, doctors' attempts to heal (or even save) the post-abortive woman are at a disadvantage.

Chemical Abortion is growing rapidly in part because of its appeal to the sellers; there is no liability for them, little time and money involved, and it's difficult to regulate.

Deception attempts continue in other ways, including a Chemical Abortion distributor naming themselves "Plan C" and abortion industry focus groups testing out rebranding Chemical Abortion to be called "missed period pills." If it wasn't clear that they don't respect women and think we're idiots, that last one proves it.

Chemical Abortion is (Currently) Reversible

As it stands, it is possible to "reverse" or treat a Chemical Abortion if only the first part of the regimen has been taken. The initial drug, Mifepristone, functions by blocking progesterone from the baby which is fatal. But hundreds of babies have been saved by Abortion Pill Reversal (APR), a tried and truly safe protocol which is simply the quick administration of progesterone within 72 hours of ingesting Mifepristone.

Sadly, the abortion industry actively opposes APR and is working towards producing a deadlier, one-pill Chemical Abortion drug which would eradicate hope for mothers who change their minds after taking the first pill (or were forced to take it against their will by an abuser).

Students for Life of America will continue battling abortion culture in all of its many forms, including this latest, sneakiest development.