The Biden administration has loosened federal regulations permitting the pills' sale at drug stores and using the mail to deliver them to home addresses, which violates existing federal law.
Dr. Michael New, associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, relays that studies of California Medicaid records and from Finland prove chemical abortions are four times more dangerous than surgical abortions.
"We have new FDA data that really shows how dangerous chemical abortion drugs are, that between September 2000 and June 2022, chemical abortion pills have been responsible for 28 deaths, over 1,000 hospitalizations, and over 4,200 adverse events," Dr. New continues. "So we really know these pills are dangerous, and making them more available is only going to increase those health risks."
Meanwhile, the general public seems unaware of the dangers of using chemical abortion drugs.
"The fact that they're being dispensed with a lot less supervision I think is very harmful," says Dr. New. "If a woman has an ectopic pregnancy and she takes the chemical abortion pill, that could be fatal [for her]. If a woman is further along in gestation than she realizes and takes a chemical abortion, that gives some very serious negative health consequences. A lot of people just simply don't know this."
He also laments the findings of another study showing the majority of pharmacists do not know the risks or the laws regarding parental involvement.
AFN recently reported that Alliance Defending Freedom has filed suit on behalf of four medical groups and four individual physicians alleging the FDA, going back several years, loosened federal regulations for abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. Each decision, the physicians argue, put women and girls in more danger.
