One afternoon I was listening to various podcasts on NPR when one in particular caught my eye. Larissa Adams shares with her audience that she has a condition called balanced translocation, which means that one of her chromosomes is missing a chunk and was placed onto another chromosome. And while for the most part, Adams can live a healthy life, her reproductive system is greatly impacted as her eggs also don’t have a 13th or 14th match-up chromosome. For several years, Adam and her husband tried to have a child, unfortunately, a lot of her pregnancies resulted in miscarriages at the 10-12 week mark. Despite the obstacles Adams and her husband have faced, she eventually was able to have a healthy three-year-old. Because Adams has faced many miscarriages, she has become very familiar with mifepristone, the medication used to induce abortions, to the point that she describes it becoming a “second language.” As mifepristone has been a huge part of Adams’ journey, she expressed shock that the abortion pill has caught such negative attention.
The attack on abortion rights continues as 11 anti-abortion advocates and doctors strive to restrict access to mifepristone. Through their hearing at the Supreme Court, they hope to prove that mifepristone causes severe complications in patients and therefore should no longer be prescribed.
Mifepristone, also commonly referred to as the abortion pill, was approved by the FDA 20 years ago based on comprehensive scientific studies and research. When used as indicated by the Mifepristone Risk Evaluation and Migration Strategy (REMS) program, the drug when paired with misoprostol terminates a pregnancy over a ten weeks.
Even with the heavily outlined guidelines and minimal experience working with mifepristone, these 11 individuals claim that the medication causes severe side effects such as heavy bleeding, which could lead to emergency surgeries. Not only has these individuals’ information or “experience” come from second-hand sources but is also statistically incorrect. Research has shown that less than 1 percent of patients prescribed mifepristone face serious or life-threatening side effects. Along with this, research has also concluded that there are fewer risks involved with taking mifepristone than penicillin or Viagra as it’s one of the safest drugs on the market.
While these uneducated claims might not cause immediate concern as they do not have substantial evidence to back them up, this group of individuals highlights a problematic mindset. Three states, Arizona, Texas, and Arkansas, have already made provisions to limit the access to mifepristone by banning mail delivery of the medication. In those states, the only way to attain the pill is by physically visiting a healthcare provider which eliminates a major convenience factor.
Even a “small” restriction such as how an individual can obtain these medications can have detrimental impacts on abortion rights as it further limits a woman’s or any individual who can bear a child’s rights to their own reproductive decisions. Mail delivery not only provides women with a convenient method to meet their needs but also provides them with a sense of privacy and control over their journey. Along with this any restriction to access in obtaining mifepristone will significantly cut off a main source of a safe abortion. During the pandemic, medication abortions increased dramatically, accounting for about half of the abortions performed in the United States. Just within 2023, there were 642,700 medication abortions, further raising the percentage of abortions performed in this manner to 63%.
Implementing restrictions to access mifepristone is a greatly damaging attack on abortion rights, especially when considering the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Even despite one’s personal beliefs, we as a society must come together and realize the immense consequences these actions can take. When we start to strip away those rights we start to strip away at individual choice. Everyone has the right to determine what happens to their body and no one has the right to impose their personal beliefs onto everyone else.
