New peer-reviewed research is debunking the abortion industry’s claim that the abortion pill is safer than Tylenol. Abortion proponents have been purporting this lie for years, but researchers say the bold claim is “baseless.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- A new peer-reviewed study analyzed the false claim that the abortion pill is safer than Tylenol.
- Author of the study, Cameron Louttit, found that a controlled, scientific study comparing the safety of abortion pills to Tylenol does not exist and could not exist.
- Convincing Americans that the abortion pill is safe has long been part of a plan to make the deadly drug more easily accessible.
THE DETAILS:
The Origins and Proliferation of Unfounded Comparisons Regarding the Safety of Mifepristone, released by the Charlotte Lozier Institute on Tuesday in the scientific journal BioTech, found that there is no support for the long-held claim that the abortion pill mifepristone, the first drug in the two-drug abortion pill regimen, is safer than Tylenol. The paper examines the origins of the claim and analyzes the lack of evidence to support it.
Cameron Louttit, director of life sciences at the Charlotte Lozier Institute and author of the article, found that a controlled, scientific study comparing the safety of abortion pills to Tylenol does not exist and could not exist because Tylenol and the abortion pill have remarkably different purposes and uses.
“For years now, the abortion lobby’s claim that abortion drugs are ‘safer than Tylenol’ has dominated public discussion, propelled by the illusion of scientific consensus,” said Louttit.
“However, no such support exists. This baseless claim, repeated by medical societies, politicians, media pundits and researchers, has profoundly influenced public opinion and policy. But as this paper details, those spreading it lack the evidence they routinely claim.”
In addition, the FDA’s drug safety assessments are based on other factors apart from death rates, yet serious complications of the abortion pill, such as sepsis and hemorrhage, are ignored in order to compare the two drugs and have the abortion pill appear safer. Yet, Tylenol-related deaths occur because of a misuse of the medication, while abortion pill-related deaths can occur when the drug is being used according to the prescription.
“In collapsing complex safety considerations into simplistic comparisons that leverage wholly incomparable metrics, these assertions systematically violate the norms and regulations that inform evidence-based biomedical communication,” Louttit said.
“Despite this, however, they have reached both the most diffuse and influential levels of our discourse over the span of roughly two decades, buoyed by the false and dangerous perception of scientific reference and expert consensus.”
THE BACKSTORY:
The abortion pill has long been touted by its proponents as safe in order to build support and move towards the abortion industry’s long-term goal of over-the-counter abortion. In December 2021, the FDA decided to weaken the abortion pill’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) safety protocols and permanently allow the abortion pill to be shipped by mail. While the decision appeared to have been a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the reality was that pro-abortion organizations had been attempting to get the rules relaxed for years.
The day after the 2021 FDA decision, former NARAL board member Renee Bracey Sherman and abortionist Daniel Grossman wrote an op-ed for The Nation, in which they openly advocated for over-the-counter abortion.
They wrote, “… advocates and health care providers in the United States could be thinking creatively about what might come next, including providing abortion pills even before you’re pregnant to have on hand if needed — or eventually over-the-counter access.”
As Live Action research fellow Carole Novielli explained, to gain support for this plan, the abortion pill had to be seen as “safe,” and the bold claim that the abortion pill is “safer than Tylenol” (acetaminophen) was sold to the public.
In 2023, Live Action researcher Bettina di Fiore looked at the safety of Tylenol and the abortion pill mifepristone and found that the ER and urgent care visit rate of mifepristone is 107 times greater than the rate of ER and urgent care visits for acetaminophen/Tylenol.
In addition, a recent, first-of-its-kind study found that serious adverse events from mifepristone occur at a rate approximately 22 times higher than the rate reported on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) label for the drug. The study, “The Abortion Pill Harms Women,” published by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), revealed that nearly 11% of women (10.93%) experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or other serious or life-threatening adverse events following a mifepristone abortion — meaning one in ten women experience at least one serious complication from taking mifepristone within 45 days.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
The web of lies surrounding the abortion pill is beginning to unravel. The new peer-reviewed study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute adds further weight to the idea that the abortion pill is not “safe” as the marketing behind it claims. It is used with the intent to kill innocent preborn children, and it carries serious risks for women. There is nothing about online or over-the-counter abortion pill sales that is good for women — such sales only benefit abortion industry bank accounts.
