Shutterstock
If the chemical abortion drug mifepristone becomes restricted under the Trump administration, pro-abortion clinicians are ready to carry out misoprostol-only abortions, according to a July 7 article in Ms. Magazine. Although the single-drug abortion regimen is touted about as “safe and effective” as the two-drug regimen, evidence indicates misoprostol-only abortions have higher risk of medical complications for women, the Charlotte Lozier Institute reports.
The potential shift in pro-abortion advocates’ approach would introduce a complex new battleground territory for the pro-life movement. Misoprostol is generally less expensive than mifepristone and does not require a prescription, although its legal usage for abortion varies depending on state law.
“Notably, none of the media sources promoting misoprostol abortion seem willing to give or direct women to information regarding recommended doses or routes of administration, apparently leaving the women in crisis to figure it out on her own,” wrote Dr. Ingrid Skop, Charlotte Lozier Institute’s vice president and director of medical affairs.
A 2019 global systematic review of more than 12,000 misoprostol abortions found that nearly one in four “required surgical completion because misoprostol failed to completely empty the uterus of the remains of the child,” according to Skop.
>> Women who use chemical abortion pills significantly more likely to end up in emergency room <<
Ms. Magazine reports that the Trump administration’s Food and Drug Administration is carrying out a safety review of mifepristone, and if that review leads to further restrictions on the drug, “abortion providers say they are ready to offer the misoprostol-only regimen to keep telehealth abortion available in all 50 states.”
Elisa Wells, who co-founded the abortion drug advocacy group Plan C, said that if restrictions are put in place, “we know that many providers would pivot to a misoprostol-only regimen, which is also safe and effective,” according to the magazine.
Another outlet that has promoted the narrative that the one-drug regime is “safe” is Healthline, which spotlighted an October 2024 study from JAMA Network Open that “abortion by misoprostol alone is a highly-effective method of terminating pregnancy.”
In her report, Skop pointed out the apparent conflicting interests of recommendations to “simplify” the chemical abortion regimen, which was already significantly dangerous for women and their unborn children.
“When failures occur, women often present emergently to hospitals for urgent treatment of retained pregnancy tissue, hemorrhage, and infection,” Skop wrote.
She reported that meta-analysis and international linkage studies found 3.4% to 7.9% of women who attempt a chemical abortion in the first trimester require surgical intervention, and that percentage rises to 39 if attempted in the second trimester.
“These recommendations by abortion advocates in the media demonstrate conclusively that their goal is not safety and well-being of women,” Skop wrote, “but merely the death of as many unborn humans as possible through expansion of abortion by any means.”
