Flawed Study on Pill Abortions Endangers Women’s Health & Safety

Experts Call for Unbiased National Reporting and Strict Regulation of Dangerous Abortion Drugs

Washington, D.C. – Charlotte Lozier Institute experts criticized a new study on the purported safety of self-administered, self-reported abortions, calling it dangerously flawed.

Two of the authors of the study, published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal, were affiliated with Women on Web, a pro-abortion activist group that illegally sends abortion drugs by mail to women in countries where abortion is prohibited or limited, without any in-person evaluation by a doctor. Women on Web provided abortion drugs to women in Ireland and Northern Ireland for the study and supplied all the data and follow-up information.

Women on Web is linked to Women on Waves, an abortion boat that sails around performing abortion on international waters.

CLI Scholars slammed the study’s obvious flaws and troublesome findings:

Dr. Michael New, CLI associate scholar: “Follow up information was unavailable for 454 women – that’s a whopping 28 percent of women in the study. Among those women who did respond, more than 9 percent reported symptoms and care-seeking for potentially serious complications, such as bleeding, fever, and persistent pain. Seven women needed a blood transfusion and 26 required antibiotics. The authors admit the rate of blood transfusions and antibiotic receipt were higher among women who performed medical abortions without medical supervision.”

Dr. Donna Harrison, associate scholar and executive director of American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists: “There is a surprising lack of basic medical information, and all of the information is self-reported.   There is not even any confirmation that the women who took the drugs were actually pregnant – no confirmatory urine or blood test by a medical professional, no ultrasound, no confirmation of any basic data. And, there is no report of how many women died…no confirmation of any of the self-reported complications.  There is not even any way to tell if women died. Seriously? This study should have been thrown out in peer review.”

Chuck Donovan, president of Charlotte Lozier Institute: “Both the source of the study data and the accompanying commentary explicitly push the envelope by encouraging illegal do-it-yourself abortions. This study reeks of bias and flagrant disregard for protective laws. Its publication in a respected medical journal is shameful and irresponsible. Here in the United States, we owe it to vulnerable women as well as their unborn children to conduct neutral, national reporting on abortion pill complications and restore strict FDA regulation of these dangerous drugs.”

Charlotte Lozier Institute was launched in 2011 as the education and research arm of Susan B. Anthony List.  CLI is a hub for research and public policy analysis on some of the most pressing issues facing the United States and nations around the world. The Institute is named for a feminist physician known for her commitment to the sanctity of human life and equal career and educational opportunities for women.

###