Are abortion pills safe?

Many research studies have shown that the abortion pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, are safe medications.

Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone to prepare the shedding of the inner uterine lining - similarly to what happens when you have a period. It also starts to soften and open the cervix. Mifepristone was invented in France in 1980, and approved for use in France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and China in the 1980s. The FDA approved it later in 2000 for use in abortion, as part of a regimen with misoprostol.

Misoprostol is a synthetic prostaglandin that causes the uterine muscles to contract to release the uterine lining and pregnancy tissue. Like mifepristone, misoprostol also softens and open the uterus. During menstruation, your body releases its own, natural prostaglandins to cause the uterus to contract and bring down your period.

In April 2023, the New York Times published an article summarizing over 100 studies on the safety and effectiveness of abortion pills… and they all concluded that medication abortion is safe! They looked at:

101 studies
Over 124,000 1st trimester abortions
Sample sizes up to 19,000 participants
26 countries
30+ years of research

“Abortion providers often say that the pills are safer than many common drugs, such as Tylenol and Viagra. Drug safety experts do not typically compare drugs in this way, and they instead assess the safety of a given medication against other choices.
For pregnant women considering medication abortion, the alternatives would be childbirth or procedural abortion.”

*Read more about the pills versus procedure* *here*.

When we counsel patients on how to use the pills, we always discuss the most common expected side effects like cramping, bleeding, nausea, diarrhea, and flu-like symptoms. We review unlikely outcomes as well, like ineffectiveness of the pills requiring a followup procedure, infection requiring antibiotics, or excessive bleeding requiring treatments like medications, a procedure, or transfusion.

Abortion pills are common!

It’s worth noting how common abortion pills are now as well. A study from the Guttmacher Institute showed that there were approximately 642,700 medication abortions in the United States in 2023. This accounts for 63% of all reported abortions in the health care system, compared to 53% in 2020. This number is likely even higher given that it does not account for self-managed abortions, which have increased in number since the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in the Dobb’s Decision in 2022.