Chemical Abortions & FDA safety statistics--how are they misrepresented?

Abortion pill complications are 22 times higher than the FDA is claiming, according to a new study entitled: The Abortion Pill Harms Women (EPPC, 2025). Meanwhile, the FDA affirms a 0.5% complication rate with mifepristone--who is right? In my ER nurse practice, patients' chemical abortion kits usually contained 2 drugs. Is drug #2 the confabulating variable? Or is the FDA correct, since mifepristone is half of the equation? Perhaps some background will clarify the issue.

• MifePRISTONE is drug #1 (RU486) in the 2-drug abortion kit. It works by blocking progesterone, the pregnancy-sustaining hormone. However, RU486 does not induce labor. In the 1980-90's, it took days to weeks for a mother to expel a starving baby's remains. As a result of known infections, sepsis and maternal deaths; experts added a second drug, with a similar name, to initiate labor. Is this confusion intentional? Meanwhile, creative documentation was used by health providers. "Miscarriage" was a kinder, gentler diagnosis--which created a better path toward health insurance reimbursement--than "Chemical-Induced Abortion." Cases got miscoded, sentinel events missed and statistics buried or misrepresented; enabling faulty data to be plausibly cherry-picked by the FDA and Planned Parenthood.

• MisoPROSTOL is drug #2 (Cytotec). In 2000, the 2-drug abortion kit was introduced. In addition to drug #1, Cytotec doses x4 were added to induce labor. This drug may sound familiar as some of us were given topical Cytotec in term pregnancies to initiate contractions. If our bag of water ruptured and labor hadn't started, Cytotec was applied directly onto our cervix. Targeting a small surface with fewer prostaglandin receptors, reduced side effects, although controlled use can take up to 6-8 doses. In a home abortion kit, the packaging (see source link below) states that this topical drug is to be placed under the tongue to melt so as to avoid receptors in the GI tract. Unfortunately, many miss this major detail and consume all 4 doses orally. Direct binding to GI receptors occurs in the stomach and intestinal smooth muscle. Knowing that the GI tract is 30-feet long: intractable, static cramps with hours of vomiting and diarrhea ensue. Meanwhile, the intended labor-inducing receptors are bypassed and labor is inefficient. As the mother perseverates over extreme GI symptoms, the birth is further delayed. Even when used under the tongue, it matters not. The mechanism of action for this topical cervical drug is dubious and the packaging-motives, irresponsible. 

• In Catholic hospitals, ER protocols employ stat ultrasounds to determine life or death with immediate consideration for abortion reversal medications. Without a heartbeat, time of death is unknown. A D&C or surgery may be needed in dire cases. Meanwhile, judiciously-used Cytotec is initiated until the baby arrives, often accompanied by an overpowering stench of decaying flesh. Permanent PTSD enters the mother as the broken image of her poisoned little one--rotting and disfigured--is tattooed upon her memory, forever.

In their new study, the Ethics & Public Policy Center (EPPC, 2025) authors followed 865,727 mifePRISTONE health insurance claims during 2017-2023. Within 45 days of the intervention, 10.9% experienced serious adverse events including ER visits, hemorrhage, sepsis, infection and follow-up surgeries. How is this information made available to women? In their minds, they think that a chemical abortion is as safe as taking a stool softener to facilitate a bowel movement. Will this study move the FDA to update statistics? What is the cost? Let us ask a famous Italian author and poet from the mid-thirteenth century.

In Dante's book, The Divine Comedy: Inferno; the poet Virgil guides him through the various circles of hell. Each level represents a major sin and variations of its evil. In the 7th circle, they encounter the murderers. Next to the suicides are the abortion-promoters. Dante's prose is prophetic. "There, haggard creatures sit in pools of blood. And, in each lap a blind babe lay, whose destined eyes would ne'er see light. With restless care--one wretch strained--to chafe back to life a clay, cold and unripe thing. Twisting it o'er and o'er, puffing hot breath into a discolored corpse; this wastrel will pass the infinity of all eternities."

Sources

• Ethics & Public Policy Center (April 2025). The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals 1 in 10 Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event
• Hidden risks of the Abortion Pill (Redacted. 2025)
• How to use Abortion Pills: Mifepristone & Misoprostol (Author & Date Unlisted)
• The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri, mid-13th century): Free Download, Borrow & Stream: Internet Archive