The Food and Drug Administration and numerous peer-reviewed academic studies have concluded that medication abortions are “safe and effective” and that serious adverse events from medication abortion are relatively rare. Recent research on women who receive abortion pills through the mail after a video conference with a clinician — rather than in-person from a medical clinic — does “not appear to show increases in serious safety concerns,” the FDA said.
Nonetheless, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who opposes abortion, defended her state’s ban on prescriptions via telemedicine (rather than in-person) appointments by calling medication abortions “very dangerous medical procedures” and claiming that “a woman is five times more likely to end up in an emergency room if they’re utilizing this kind of method for an abortion.”
Noem’s press office said Noem meant to say four times more likely, not five (a figure she has used in the past), and cited research on emergency room visits by women with Medicaid coverage who got medication abortions. She isn’t citing the study correctly, though. It found that women who got medication abortions were 53% more likely (not four times) to have a subsequent emergency room visit for an abortion-related reason than a woman who received a surgical abortion.
But other researchers warn not to assume that a higher rate of emergency room visits necessarily means it is a higher safety risk. They cite research that shows most women with Medicaid who visit an ER after a medication abortion are not treated for any serious complication.
Noem’s Case Against Medication Abortion
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 voted 5-4 to overturn Roe v. Wade, holding that the “Constitution does not confer a right to abortion” and returning the regulation of abortion to states. Thirteen states, including South Dakota, passed so-called trigger laws to ban abortion when Roe was overturned, and other states are expected to follow suit.
