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Recent Study on Abortion Drug Panned for ‘Poor Quality Research’ by Expert

February 20, 2024

Planned Parenthood, the leading proponent of abortion in America, has written on their website, “Medication abortion is really safe and effective. It’s a super common way to have an abortion, and millions of people have used it safely.” Planned Parenthood broadcasts that abortion is a “right,” that any method of terminating a baby in the womb is safe, and that complications are “extremely rare.”

However, several experts have pointed out that Planned Parenthood — along with other businesses that carry out abortions — are especially prone to dressing up poor or false data, research, and arguments to serve their agenda.

Chemical abortion has become a focal point in this debate, since its use has spiked significantly since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

The abortion drug mifepristone has been strongly promoted as an alternative to women who want an abortion but live in pro-life states. Women are told that the abortion pill is safe and easy, as it can be done in one’s own home. Several universities across America have required access to the abortion pill, and as potential restrictions to the pill circulate in the media, research has revealed that women have stocked up on it “just in case.”

But medical professionals and pro-life advocates are trying to bring awareness to research that reveals chemical abortion is anything but safe.

Many women have shared their testimonies from using the abortion pill. Kelly Lester, Outreach Director for And Then There Were None, talked openly about her pain after four abortions. “The abortion pill was the worst,” she insisted. “Women aren’t getting the full story.” Like so many others, Lester said her experience is one of grief and agony. But these testimonies are ignored by mainstream media.

Nature Medicine recently released a study that claimed “99.8% of abortions were not followed by serious adverse events.” But with an abundance of evidence that contradicts such a claim, can the results from this study be trusted? “[A]re these claims truthful, or are the researchers in this study blind to the very real dangers of the drug to the mothers?” asked Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, on Monday’s edition of “Washington Watch.”

Dr. Ingrid Skop, vice president and director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, highlighted the flaws in this study. The fact that the outcome of at least a quarter of the women involved was unknown “should disqualify the study,” she said. “If you don’t know what happened to one out of four women, you cannot assume that those were uncomplicated.”

Skop, who is also a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said she’s seen “so many women harmed by abortion drugs,” adding that what she’s seen on the ground is proof that it’s not safe. “This study is the latest in a long series of demonstrations that the pro-abortion medical organizations and the pro-abortion scientific journals are now publishing what they know is poor quality research in order to promote abortion ideology,” she said.

According to Skop, the Charlotte Lozier Institute conducted its own research, collecting data from women in states that allow Medicaid to pay for abortion. She said their study found “one out of 20 women after abortion drugs” went to “an emergency room with a complication related to those drugs within a month.”

She continued, “That’s very high quality data. We didn’t lose patients to follow up. And yet our studies have been targeted, and these other studies that are obviously just ideologically driven have been allowed to pass without any scrutiny from the pro-abortion media.” And she stressed that even the complications that commonly follow abortions are also ignored in these studies. “Because it doesn’t fit the narrative,” Perkins added. “[I]t doesn’t fit the push that this administration is involved in [by] trying to make these abortion pills available through the mail.”

Ultimately, they agreed that the truth about the harms of abortion must continue to be voiced, especially when studies such as the one published by Nature Medicine push false inferences. “We just need to keep fighting for women and their unborn children,” Skop concluded.

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.