Study of “Abortion Reversal” Pill Halted Because It’s Too Dangerous

Conservative lawmakers have touted the pill as a fix for abortion.

Activists protest abortion bans in the Utah State Capitol Rotunda on May 21. Rick Bowmer/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

The so-called abortion reversal pill has been touted by abortion foes throughout the country, from Republican politicians to crisis pregnancy centers, as the “fix” for abortions. In the past year, several states have passed laws requiring doctors to inform patients that abortions can be reversed. However, a new study has revealed that not only is there no evidence this pill reverses abortions, but it can actually be incredibly dangerous. 

In a study published Thursday in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers at the University of California, Davis, were looking to determine whether taking progesterone could prevent an abortion after a patient has taken the first of two pills required for a medically induced abortion. However, the study was halted in July over serious “safety concerns” after testing only 12 of the 40 intended participants.

Three of the women had to be taken to the hospital after severe vaginal bleeding occurred. After the third hospitalization, the researchers ended the study and concluded that “patients in early pregnancy who use only mifepristone may be at high risk of significant hemorrhage.” In comparison, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists lists abortion as a low-risk surgery, with a complication rate of less than 1 percent

Although researchers could not determine whether giving patients progesterone is an effective method of reversing abortions, the results are troubling in light of recent pushes to include abortion reversal in abortion counseling. Eight states—Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Utah—have “compelled speech” laws on the books requiring abortion providers to inform patients that abortions can be reversed. Five of those states passed these laws within the past year. 

Earlier this year, the American Medical Association sued North Dakota over its “compelled speech” law, arguing that it forced doctors “to provide patients with false, misleading, non-medical information about reproductive health.” A federal judge temporarily blocked the law writing in his order that the law was “unsound,” and lacked “any medical or scientific evidence to support such a message.” There are currently no published studies proving the efficacy of progesterone as an abortion reversal drug. 

Conservative lawmakers aren’t the only ones pushing unscientific claims about abortion reversals. Heartbeat International, an anti-abortion organization that runs the world’s largest network of crisis pregnancy centers—which seek to deter people from going through with abortions—actively promotes the use of abortion reversal pills. The organization even has an abortion pill reversal hotline, which it says has aided women in reversing more than 450 abortions. Its website claims that the “Abortion Pill Reversal empowers a woman to choose life for herself and for her baby.” Nowhere on the page does it explain that mifepristone has never been proven in a scientific study to effectively reverse abortions. 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate