Pro-abortion lawmakers in Congress recently called on the FDA to lift abortion pill safety requirements. This comes after the Supreme Court’s January decision ending months of back-and-forth over the attempt to deregulate the abortion pill amid pandemic-related lockdowns. Because of their known risks, chemical abortions are regulated under the FDA’s Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategy (REMS) protocol. Among other things, this means that women cannot obtain abortion pills without an in-person examination and the first of the two pills must be taken in the presence of a medical provider.
After the Court determined that the state did not have the authority to waive these guidelines, pandemic or no pandemic, members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee sent a letter to the FDA petitioning them to remove abortion pill safety requirements.
The known risks of the abortion pill are serious and potentially life-threatening. On top of that, a recent study called into question how well abortion pill complications are being traced and reported when the number of women who go directly to the emergency room rather than rather than returning to the prescribing clinic are taken into account. Currently, abortion pill prescribers are required to report complications to the FDA. The abortion pill manufacturer, Danco, is also required to report adverse events when they are made aware of them. The study authors pointed out that many women who obtain chemical abortions are “lost to follow-up,” meaning that the prescriber has no information about the health of the mother because she never returned to the clinic. Hospitals, emergency rooms, and private clinics are not required to report abortion pill complications to the FDA.
The study authors acknowledged that, because abortion providers and the abortion pill manufacturer are the only ones required to report abortion pill complications, they are working with incomplete data. However, based on the evidence that is available, there is good reason to believe that complication rates from the abortion pill are considerably higher than what is reported to the FDA. The authors report that out of over 2,000 surgical interventions required to manage abortion pill complications, “the surgical management of over half the complications was performed by someone other than the abortion provider, yet treating physicians are not required to report complications.”
Similarly, research Dr. Daniel Grossman, an abortionist who has publicly advocated for the expansion of the abortion pill points to high numbers of adverse events after taking the abortion pill regimen, despite Grossman’s insistence that the abortion pill is “safe.” Grossman’s research found that in California this “safe” procedure sent 1 out of every 15 patients to the emergency room in a single year.
Five years ago, despite evidence that the abortion pill is dangerous, the FDA reduced prescribing and reporting requirements on the abortion pill. Like the current push to further deregulate the abortion pill, this decision was politically motivated, and not focused on the best interests of women.
If the abortion industry and the members of Congress who are calling on the FDA to remove restrictions on the abortion pill were truly concerned with women’s safety and well-being, they would be calling for the abortion pill to be banned, or at the very least, better reporting requirements.
The abortion pill ends the life of an unborn child and disregards the safety of the child’s mother. This is not “healthcare,” and removing safety requirements benefits no one but the abortion industry.
(Image: Flickr, Robin Marty, CC BY 2.0)
