In Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing on abortion and women’s health care, senators and witnesses on both sides sought to explain the recently reported deaths of two Georgia women who took abortion drugs. Pro-abortion senators, attempting to blame the state’s pro-life law for these tragedies, overlooked the fact that these women passed away due to the effects of chemical abortion, which they and other advocates have long contended is “safer than Tylenol.”
Reading about these women’s deaths as an OB/GYN who has published research on abortion drugs’ safety, I was heartbroken but unfortunately not surprised. Women are being fed lies about these drugs: that they are safe, that it is safe to self-manage one’s abortion, and that there’s no better way to get the care they need if they have a complication.
Twenty-eight-year-old Amber Thurman sought a surgical abortion but was denied one because she was 15 minutes late for her appointment. Instead, Amber was given abortion drugs—mifepristone and misoprostol—a change that may have cost her life. Women are told that these drugs are safe, but compared with surgical abortion, abortion by drugs has almost four times the overall risk of complications. This includes nearly eight times the risk of hemorrhage and over four times the risk of retained tissue, the complication that Amber suffered.
Retained tissue, or incomplete abortion, means that the fetus and pregnancy tissues do not completely pass from the woman’s body. This occurs in roughly 8 percent of cases (though that number skyrockets after the first trimester) and must be treated with dilation and curettage, a surgical procedure that removes the contents of the uterus.
Amber had a further serious complication: sepsis. Although we don’t know the details of her infection, we do know that mifepristone has been linked to a rare deadly infection called Clostridium sordellii. This possible complication is clearly noted in a black box warning on mifepristone’s labeling, as other women have died from infection after taking abortion drugs.
Abortion drugs are not safer than Tylenol. They are not even as safe as a surgical abortion. But instead of being advised of their risks, women are pushed to take them with little to no medical supervision or ongoing care.
Most concerning of all, abortion advocates encourage women to self-manage their abortions—women like 41-year-old Candi Miller, who tragically died after ordering her pills online, taking them at home, and not seeking medical care at all. Candi had high blood pressure, diabetes, and lupus—all conditions that increase a woman’s risk in pregnancy. Regardless of whether she wanted to terminate, she needed to consult with her physician. Unfortunately, Candi instead was sent pills by AidAccess, one of the many online sites selling abortion drugs.
A pro-abortion rights activist holds a box of mifepristone during a rally in front of the US Supreme Court on March 26, 2024, in Washington, DC. The Court reenters the contentious legal battle over abortion on March 26 as it weighs restrictions on the drug that is most widely used in the US to terminate pregnancies. The conservative-dominated court, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion nearly two years ago, is to hear oral arguments on access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
AidAccess originally offered to send abortion drugs by mail from outside the United States with only an online consultation. But the FDA‘s authorization of mail-order chemical abortion drugs emboldened it, and similar companies, to sell these drugs without providing the legitimate care women like Candi need.
The FDA has further endangered women by removing a host of common-sense safeguards that had been in place since mifepristone’s initial approval in 2000 to protect women against the worst risks of chemical abortion. For example, originally, the prescriber had to be a physician who could accurately assess the duration of pregnancy, determine its location, and ensure access to emergency surgery, resuscitation, or transfusion if needed. The patient had to have three office visits to help ensure optimal supervision and care throughout the process.
Since 2016, however, the FDA has gradually removed these requirements. Today, abortion pills can be sold online by non-physicians with no in-person visits and no follow-ups, up to 10 weeks’ gestation rather than the previous limit of seven weeks. All these changes put women at greater risk of the same types of complications Amber and Candi suffered.
These deregulations have only empowered those advocating for self-managed abortions. Candi’s death may have been one devastating consequence of this advocacy.
But Candi is not the only woman to suffer from mail-order abortion. Women have taken these drugs and then are often left alone with severe cramping, sitting in a pool of blood, waiting to deliver their baby. Isolated in their bathroom or dorm room, they are left to figure out how to dispose of their deceased child. If they have retained tissue like Amber and Candi did, no one will know until they show up at the ER.
Promoting accurate information about the safety of abortion drugs does not have to be about laws or people’s opinions on induced abortion. This is about giving women and girls good medical care. Until we stop the lies about these dangerous drugs, women will continue to suffer harm.
Dr. Christina A. Cirucci, MD is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist in Pennsylvania who has published peer-reviewed research on the safety of abortion drugs. She is Chair of the Board at the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
