Anti-abortion laws in several states require women who want medical abortions to be provided with dubious information that the procedure can be stopped, which researchers found to be dangerous to the patient, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
When a study, led by Dr. Mitchell Creinin at the University of California at Davis Health, attempted to determine if the "abortion reversal" treatments were effective, the researchers had to stop almost immediately because some of the women who took part in the study experienced dangerous hemorrhaging.
Medication abortions use a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol that patients take 24 hours apart, a procedure which studies show is safe and effective to end pregnancy for at least 95% of women who use them correctly, NPR reported.
Supporters of the "abortion-reversal" treatment offer the hormone progesterone to patients after they have taken mifepristone but have then decided they do not want to finish the abortion, a procedure they claim prevents the abortion from taking place.
But most OB-GYNs, including the professional group the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say such a procedure is "not supported by science."
This professional rejection of the abortion-reversal treatment, however, has not stopped lawmakers from putting it into abortion reversal legislation.
Creinin said "I feel really horrible that I couldn't finish the study. I feel really horrible that the women . . . had to go through all this," according to the Post.
The results, however, do show "that there's a very significant safety signal" when it comes to disrupting the approved medication abortion protocol, he said.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.