Guest Author - Rebecca Orczeck

An extensive long-term study involving 12,000 Danish women showed no greater risk to future pregnancies when using the abortion pill opposed to the more common surgical methods.

Medical abortions use a tablet of mifespristone taken orally followed by a few tablets of misoprostol within the following hours. The combination essentially dissolves the connective tissue between the embryo and the uterus and then causes the uterus to contract, expelling its contents – including the aborted baby and gestational sac.

The study does not publicly disclose whether the misoprostol tablets are taken orally or administered vaginally (an off-label practice the FDA does not endorse). At least six known cases of fatal toxic shock associated with Clostridium sordellii bacteria have occurred in the United States and Canada after women used vaginal misoprostol in medical abortions.

It is commonly known within the abortion industry that doctors prescribe misoprostol off-label because it is very effective, but with dangerous consequences. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has gone so far to ensure safer medical abortion practices that it requires abortion providers to give patients a Medication Guide and a Patient Agreement Form, which must be signed. The provider must also sign a Prescriber’s Agreement Form.

It is important to note that the study does not claim that medical abortion is safe, but simply that it is no worse for women than surgical abortions. No statistics were available in this study regarding the fertility outcome of women who had never had abortions compared to women who did.