As students return this fall to colleges and universities in California, New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois they will have more open access to chemical abortion pills because those state governments now require public those entities to provide abortion pills on campus.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, California took steps to require access to chemical abortion at its state universities. This movement grew, with Illinois being the latest state to bring these dangerous drugs to campus in August.
Such endeavors put more young women at risk.
“One in twenty women who take the abortion pill will experience a hemorrhage, and ER visits have increased by 500 percent for abortion related complications,” said Christa Brown, BSN, RN, senior director of medical impact for Heartbeat International. “With little concern for the wellbeing of their young constituents, politicians push women further into harm's way.”
Tweet This: One in 20 women who take the abortion pill will have a hemorrhage and ER visits have increased by 500% for abortion-related complications.
A groundbreaking report released in April by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) regarding an analysis of data from an all-payer insurance claims database showed that 10.93 percent of women experienced “sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following” a chemical abortion. That rate is 22 times higher than cited by Danco, the company that manufactures mifepristone under the brand name Mifeprex. EPPC researchers called this statistic “a serious adverse event rate” and requested the federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) “… reinstate earlier, stronger patient safety protocols and reconsider its approval of [the drug] mifepristone altogether.”
“The abortion pill is a type of chemical abortion that requires two medications, given for two different purposes at two different times,” Brown explained.
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The drugs used are mifepristone and misoprostol. The first pill, mifepristone, blocks a woman’s natural hormone, progesterone, which is needed to support a pregnancy. Misoprostol is the second drug, and it causes cramping and bleeding, expelling the unborn baby from a woman’s uterus.
“Often there is little medical assessment, and the woman must initiate her own abortion and monitor her own symptoms during the abortion process,” Brown told Pregnancy Help News. “On campuses, women are given the abortion pill to complete their abortions in their own bathrooms and dorm rooms. Colleges maintain medical privacy for students 18 years or older, so parents of these students would not know how many abortions occur.”
Increase in abortion numbers
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, sending the abortion issue back to the states more than three years ago, America has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of chemical abortions. From online sites to college campuses, ease of access to the two-drug regime that often ends the life of an unborn human means abortion still exists and women’s physical and mental health are at greater risk.
According to the Society for Family Planning, the number of abortions in the United States increased from 1.05 million in 2023 to 1.14 in 2024. Several factors account for the rise, including internet sites that distribute abortion pills by mail, telehealth abortions through virtual clinics, and interstate travel to pro-abortion states like Illinois, New Mexico, California, and New York.
The pro-abortion organization says that chemical abortion via telehealth now accounts for 25 percent of abortions and for more than 60 percent of all abortions. Additionally, the study showed the rate for travel across state lines to obtain an abortion nearly doubled from 2020 to 2024.
Pregnancy help organizations remain on the front lines to help women find real choice with abortion alternatives, programs, medical services, and resources.
“Safe and effective”
Pro-abortion advocates, including politicians and physician groups, tout the supposed safety of chemical abortion. However, many studies show the numerous physical and emotional risks. In addition to the Ethics and Public Policy Center data research, two years ago, the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) updated a 2022 Fact Sheet regarding chemical abortions, including:
- Chemical abortion has a complication rate four times that of surgical abortion, and as many as one in five women will suffer a complication.
- As many as 15 percent of women will experience hemorrhage, and two percent will have an infection.
- Chemical abortions are over 50 percent more likely than surgical abortions to result in an ER visit within 30 days, with one woman experiencing an abortion-related ER visit for every 20 chemical abortions.
- The risk of incomplete abortion and infection increases with increasing gestational age.
Although FDA guidelines approve the two-drug chemical abortion regimen for use up to 10 weeks, many abortion facilities tell women abortion pills can be used beyond that gestational age.
The Cleveland Clinic espouses chemical abortion as “safe and effective,” the same language used by abortion proponents. However, the clinic’s website also lists several potential physical health risks, including infection, heavy bleeding, incomplete abortion, and allergic reaction to the drugs. The Mayo Clinic additionally lists fever and digestive discomfort as potential physical side effects.
Additionally there are the mental and emotional side effects that very few medical groups, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), discuss, and often disavow. In a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers discovered that women who had abortions were 81 percent more likely to experience mental health challenges. Other findings included women who experienced abortion were:
- 34% more likely to develop an anxiety disorder
- 37% more likely to experience depression
- 110% more likely to abuse alcohol
- 155% more likely to commit suicide
- 220% more likely to abuse marijuana
The safety issues associated with chemical abortion drugs have increasingly come into question. While pro-abortion advocates espouse the drugs are safer than over-the-counter pain medication, pro-life advocates have called for the FDA to rescind the loose protocols regarding these drugs, such as no longer requiring in-person visits with physicians and the ability to receive the drugs by mail with little to no medical oversight.
CLI recently published a paper that challenges the safe and effective assertion for chemical abortion pills.
“For years now, the abortion lobby’s claim that abortion drugs are ‘safer than Tylenol’ has dominated public discussion, propelled by the illusion of scientific consensus. However, no such support exists,” said Cameron Louttit, CLI’s director of life sciences and author of the article. “This baseless claim, repeated by medical societies, politicians, media pundits and researchers, has profoundly influenced public opinion and policy. But as this paper details, those spreading it lack the evidence they routinely claim.”
Another risk not widely discussed is the opportunity for men to use the drugs to cause their partners to abort without the partners’ knowledge or consent. A case in Texas this year, a case in the same state a few years previous, an Illinois case in August, and a case in England in 2024 – are just a few of the known incidents that have resulted in charges and/or trials.
The ease of access to chemical abortion, whether on campus or online, puts the lives of women whose partners don’t want them to carry to term at greater risk – and often results in the death of the baby the woman wanted.
There have been 36 reported deaths associated with mifepristone reported as of December 2024 according to the FDA’s own data. These included “two cases of ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy located outside the womb, such as in the fallopian tubes) resulting in death, and several fatal cases of severe systemic infection (also called sepsis).”
Abortion in today’s America
Earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to review data on mifepristone. Pro-life advocates and members of Congress have urged the Trump administration to look into safety concerns regarding the drug.
Meanwhile, states like Massachusetts and New York provide abortion drugs to young adults attending college or are helping students pay for an abortion, often without medical oversight and without regard for the health and well-being of the students.
“Private institutions typically cover costs through their student health plans or other funds for abortion-related expenses, including travel,” Brown said. “Abortion proponents continue to lean into the illusion that the overturn of Roe vs Wade has limited abortion access for women and work to find new ways to end more pregnancies.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
