By Randall K. O'Bannon,
Ph.D., NRL-ETF Director of
Education & Research
Planned Parenthood says "Our
monitoring shows that
mifepristone medication
abortion continues to be a
safe abortion option." The
distributor of Mifeprex (the
trade name for RU486) says
that "Mifeprex is 92-95%
effective for safely ending
early pregnancy."
But a new study from Finland
says that 20% of the women
using the abortion pill
suffer at least one
significant complication.
Nearly 4% reported two or
more complications or
"adverse events."
The study, "Immediate
Complications After Medical
Compared with Surgical
Termination of Pregnancy,"
appeared in the October 2009
issue of the journal
Obstetrics & Gynecology.
A team of Finnish
Researchers headed by Maarit
Niinimäki of the Oulu
University Hospital looked
at all abortions, surgical
and chemical, performed up
to 63 days after gestation,
in Finland between January
1, 2000 and December 31,
2006.
To identify and tally the
complications, researchers
looked at all abortion
patient inpatient and
outpatient visits occurring
within 42 days after the
abortion. A national health
records system enables
researchers to track the
medical outcomes with
individual patients over
time.
Researchers found that 15.6
% percent of those
undergoing chemical
abortions hemorrhaged, 1.7%
encountered infection, and
6.7% had incomplete
abortions.
Less than a tenth of 1% of
women aborting chemically
reported the other adverse
events measured by the study
– injury, thromboembolic
disease (e.g., pulmonary
embolism), psychiatric
morbidity (e.g., depression,
psychoses), or death. But it
should be noted that any
latent psychological or
physical consequences (such
as impaired fertility) might
not be manifest at 42 days
post abortion.
A few things are very much
worth noting about the
complication rates. The
rate of those having
"incomplete abortions" and
infections increased as the
length of gestation
increased.
In the U.S., the FDA tried
to limit abortions using
RU486 to 49 days gestation.
But the industry has been
openly performing them up to
63 days gestation and
sometimes even later. Most
of those in the Finnish
study who had incomplete
abortions went on to have
some sort of what the
authors term "surgical (re)evacuation."
Cross referencing
demographic data, the
Finnish researchers found
that the risk of hemorrhage
increased among aborting
women using RU486 who were
aged 20-24, having had a
previous birth, from a lower
socio-economic class and
living in a densely
populated or rural area.
Risk factors associated with
an incomplete abortion were
the same, but also included
those having a previous
abortion, single, or having
an advanced gestation.
In comparison to surgical
abortion, the risk of
hemorrhage with chemical
abortions with RU486 nearly
eight times higher, while
the likelihood of an
incomplete abortion was five
times higher.
It was not that surgical
abortion was safe, however.
About 5.5% of Finnish women
having surgical abortions
reported at least one
adverse event. The rate of
hemorrhage was significantly
lower (2.1%), as was the
rate of incomplete abortion
(1.6%), but infection rates
were about the same (1.7%).
As might be expected, injury
rates from surgical abortion
were about 20 times higher
than those found with
chemical abortions, though
not high as an overall
percentage of adverse events
(0.6%).
Surprising from these
figures is that there were a
substantial number of
surgical abortions that were
somehow "incomplete," with a
number of women returning
for "surgical (re)evacuations."
This is a much different
picture of abortion than one
encounters in the United
States, where the safety of
abortion, chemical or
surgical, is regularly
touted by the abortion
industry and its defenders.
Risks are mentioned,
sometimes at the bottom of
the page in small print (www.earlyoptionpill.com),
or are said to be "rare" (www.plannedparenthood.org),
but the overall message of
safety and convenience
shines through.
Though the authors of the
Finnish study label both the
chemical and surgical
methods of abortion
"generally safe," it is
clear that complications are
more common than many might
have been led to believe,
and that contrary to
expectations that the
chemical method was safer
and easier, the data clearly
show that "medical abortion
results in an increased
incidence of adverse
events."
