Medical Abortions Deemed Safer Than Surgical Abortions

With the introduction of the abortion pill that can be used during early pregnancy, a trend toward this method rather than a surgical abortion has started to emerge. In fact, approximately a quarter of women in the United States who wanted abortions early on in their pregnancies last year opted to do so with the pill. Researchers feel that this number will steadily rise as these “medical abortions” offer a privacy and anonymity that surgical abortions do not. The study was researched at Planned Parenthood clinics all over the U.S. and it determined that abortion pills essentially wipes out the possibility of a dangerous infection that can be brought on by a surgical abortion.

Dr. Beverly Winikoff, a Columbia University professor in family health, states, “This is the first really huge documentation of how safe and effective medical abortion is. The technology is very good and very well used in this country, and probably will be used more and more.” While, overall, about 25% of abortions done early in the pregnancy are through the abortion pill, approximately 32% of abortions done through Planned Parenthood are done in this manner. The recent study analyzed over 225,000 cases of medical abortion between the years 2005 and 2008 and determined that over 98% of these were effective. The procedure which can be done in the first quarter of a pregnancy (9 weeks) requires that the patient take a pill known as Mifeprex (once called RU-486). The purpose of this pill is to cause an embryo to detach itself from the wall of the uterus. A follow-up pill called misoprostol is taken anywhere from 1 to days after the first pill. This second pills causes the uterus to contract, thereby forcing the embryo out. Many people mistakenly liken these drugs to Plan B. Plan B is different in that it is administered within a few days after an episode of unprotected sex or the failure of a contraceptive like a condom.

In the original procedures for the medical abortion, patients had the misoprostol pill inserted into their vaginal region so that the medicine could absorb directly there; however, five women died of a bacterial infection due to this procedure which caused a outburst of criticism. The procedure was changed in 2006 to have the patient simply allow the pill to absorb in their mouth. In addition, some clinics also prescribed a precautionary course of antibiotics so infection would not occur. Mary Fjerstad, the lead researcher on the study, stated, “We decided we needed to make a safe procedure even safer.” It seemed to work since by the last half year of the study, infections had gone down tremendously to 1/16th of the previous rate.

Dr. Beth Jordan, the medical direction of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, feels the results of the data are going to impress providers across the country. She thinks it may even encourage some doctors to offer this type of medical abortion. Currently, over 85% of counties in the U.S. are with an abortion provider. Jordan states, “But I don’t think it’s going to open the floodgates.”