Some deaths connected to mifepristone were actually homicides, drug overdoses | Fact check
The claim: The abortion pill caused 28 maternal deaths and over 4,200 adverse events
An April 12 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows an image of a woman eating a pill.
"The abortion pill has caused at least 28 maternal deaths and over 4,200 adverse events, including hemorrhaging and infections," reads the post, which was shared by the group Wisconsin Family Action.
Similar posts have generated hundreds of interactions on Instagram.
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Our rating: False
The report in question does not say mifepristone directly caused 28 deaths, and many of those deaths came in circumstances that made such a cause-and-effect connection impossible, such as homicides and drug overdoses. The 4,200 adverse events also can’t be causally linked to mifepristone, since much of the data was based on medically unconfirmed reports that can be made by anyone.
Deaths and adverse events not causally linked to mifepristone
Julaine Appling, president of the nonprofit Wisconsin Family Action, referred USA TODAY to the FDA’s page on mifepristone – a drug that blocks a hormone needed for pregnancy – as evidence for the claim that the abortion pill caused 28 maternal deaths.
The FDA website says that as of June 30, 2022, there have been “28 reports of deaths in patients associated with mifepristone since the product was approved in September 2000,” and that includes severe cases of sepsis and two cases of pregnancy located outside the womb. The data comes from an FDA adverse events summary report.
But contrary to the post’s claim, the deaths “cannot with certainty be causally attributed to mifepristone” because the database doesn't account for use of other drugs, medical treatments, prior medical conditions and other specifics about each case, according to the report.
The list of 28 women who died after using the drug includes two homicides, a suspected homicide, a suicide and six drug overdoses, the report said.
"The nature of the deaths varies. … Some are plausibly related to the drug, and others are clearly not a result of mifepristone,” said Dr. Caleb Alexander, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. “Mifepristone doesn’t cause you to be a victim of homicide you know... so that's kind of, that's the nature of this reporting."
Fact check: Abortion-related deaths continued after Roe v. Wade, but occurred less often
Amanda Jean Stevenson, a sociologist at the University of Colorado, agreed, noting correlation doesn't prove causation.
“Not only does the FDA not analyze the causal relationships between the reported abortion and reported deaths in these numbers, but the causes of death listed in the report reflect that abortion was unlikely to be the cause of death for many or most of the reported deaths,” Stevenson said.
The post’s claim that the abortion pill caused 4,200 adverse events wrong for similar reasons. Appling referred USA TODAY to a 2018 government accountability office report that says the FDA identified about “4,200 instances of adverse events associated with Mifeprix (the brand name for mifepristone) from Sept. 28, 2000, through June 30, 2017, among the approximately 3.2 million women who have used the drug.”
However, the report notes an adverse event associated with Mifeprix does not necessarily mean that Mifeprix caused the event. Reports come from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System and are not verified and can be reported by anyone.
“Submission of a report does not mean that the information included in it has been medically confirmed, nor is it an admission from the reporter that the drug caused or contributed the event,” the FDA says on its website.
Research studies show that abortion pills are safe
Medication abortion is safe, and a large number of studies validate this, according to Paula Lantz, an abortion policy expert at the University of Michigan.
The New York Times analyzed over 100 studies spanning countries and decades examining the effectiveness of mifepristone and misoprostol and found that the “vast majority of studies report that more than 99 percent of patients who took the pills had no serious complications.”
A 2018 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine also found that “complications after medication abortion, such as hemorrhage, hospitalization, persistent pain, infection, or prolonged heavy bleeding, are rare – occurring in no more than a fraction of a percent of patients.”
Fact check: False claim that a 12-year-old who gets an abortion in Alabama is jailed for life
And a 2015 study found that the major complication rate among 54,911 abortions performed for women covered by California's Medicaid program was 0.23%. That rate was 0.31% for women who had medication abortion.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
PolitiFact also debunked this claim.
Our fact-check sources:
Caleb Alexander, May 8, Phone interview with USA TODAY
Ushma Upadhyay, May 18, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Paula Lantz, May 18, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Amanda Jean Stevenson, May 19, Email exchange with USA TODAY
FDA, Jan. 4, Questions and Answers on Mifepristone for Medical Termination of Pregnancy Through Ten Weeks Gestation
FDA, Oct. 22, 2021, FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) Public Dashboard
FDA, accessed May 22, Mifepristone U.S. Post-Marketing Adverse Events Summary through 06/30/2022
Government Accountability Office, March 2018, Information on Mifeprex Labeling Changes and Ongoing Monitoring Efforts
New York Times, April 7, Are Abortion Pills Safe? Here’s the Evidence.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018, The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care in the United States
Obstetrics and Gynecology, January 2015, Incidence of Emergency Department Visits and Complications After Abortion
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Claim falsely blames abortion pill for 28 deaths | Fact check
