What to Know About Abortion Pills Post-Roe

Abortion access in the U.S. is quickly shrinking. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe vs. Wade, experts predict that people will increasingly seek to end pregnancies in their homes using medication abortion (also known as a medical abortion or abortion pills). Abortion pills are already the most common way to end a pregnancy in the U.S., accounting for 54% of abortions in 2020, and that number is expected to grow. Here’s what to know about the safety and efficacy of abortion pills. What are abortion pills? Medication abortions, which are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration until the 10th week of pregnancy, involve taking two drugs 24 to 48 hours apart. The first one, called RU 486 or mifepristone, is a hormone that blocks progesterone and stops the pregnancy from progressing; the second, misoprostol, causes contractions and bleeding that empty the uterus. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] How safe is a medication abortion? Very safe. “We have a great deal of safety data,” says Dr. Daniel Grossman, an ob-gyn and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. Serious complications that require hospitalizations are “incredibly rare—less than half a percent.” Dr. Lauren Owens, an ob-gyn at the University of Michigan, adds that “medical abortion has been historically really tightly regulated because of abortion stigma, but not because of medical necessity.” Will abortion pills rema...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized abortion healthscienceclimate Source Type: news