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FACT BRIEF

Is the abortion pill considered safe?

Saturday, September 12, 2020
By William Boger
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YES

Under the brand name Mifeprex, the abortion pill has been sold in the U.S. since 2000, and is now used in more than a third of abortions at eight weeks or less of gestation. KFF, a nonprofit health information provider, terms the drug "safe and highly effective."

If Mifeprex and a second follow-up pill are administered as intended, the pregnancy is terminated successfully 99.6% of the time, with a 0.4% risk of major complications, KFF says. The Food and Drug Administration recorded 24 deaths associated with the drug through the end of 2018, a rate of 0.65 per 100,000 patients. The maternity death rate in the U.S. is 17.4 per 100,000 live births.

A federal court has suspended the FDA's in-person dispensing rules during the coronavirus pandemic, allowing prescriptions via telemedicine. The Trump Administration is asking the Supreme Court to stay that order while it appeals the decision.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
KFF: Availability and use of medication abortion
FDA: Q&A on Mifeprex
FDA: Mifeprex US post-marketing adverse events summary through 2018
The Hill: Trump Administration asks Supreme Court to reinstate abortion pill rule
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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.