'Abortion Pill Exposed': Live Action investigation and report reveal dangers of abortion pill

Live Action held a press conference entitled "Abortion Pill Exposed" on Capitol Hill on Thursday, January 22, where Live Action founder and president Lila Rose presented findings from a video investigation, a white paper, and more, regarding the dangers of the abortion pill.

Key Takeaways:

• On January 22, Live Action presented findings from a video investigation, white paper, and more, all demonstrating the dangers of the abortion pill and calling for HHS and the FDA to take "immediate, corrective action."

• Live Action's white paper and video investigation show evidence of regulatory noncompliance and patient harm, as the abortion pill is now available via telehealth and through the mail.

• The video investigation reveals how Planned Parenthood fails to require safety measures, functioning as a drug dispensary instead of providing real care for women. This process puts women at increased risk.

The Details:

Members of Congress also attended Live Action's press conference, including Reps. Michael Cloud (R-Texas), Mark Harris (R-N.C.), Troy Downing (R-Mont.), and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.). Other speakers present included Ryan Anderson of The Ethics and Public Policy Center, 'abortion pill reversal' expert Dr. George Delgado, abortion pill injury survivor Shanyce Thomas, and Planned Parenthood whistleblower Mayra Rodríguez.

Live Action is calling for "immediate corrective action" from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the approval, distribution, and adverse events reporting for the abortion pill (mifepristone - 200 mg).

Live Action's white paper, "The State of Chemical Abortion: A Mechanism of Death," and its video investigation exposing how Planned Parenthood dispenses the abortion pill, show clear evidence of regulatory noncompliance and patient harm, as the abortion pill is now available via telehealth and through the mail.

In a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, Live Action explained:

For more than two decades, mifepristone has remained on the market under an approval process that was politically accelerated, shielded from transparency, and repeatedly expanded without regard for patient safety, adverse event reporting, or statutory compliance. Since its approval in 2000, this drug has ended the lives of approximately 7.5 million children in the United States. Live Action’s investigation now publicly documents how those regulatory failures in safety manifest in clinical practice, particularly within Planned Parenthood facilities tasked with administering this drug under federal safeguards. 

FALLOUT: How dumping patients and pushing a lie misled everyone about the abortion pill

The video released by Live Action shows a caller contacting Planned Parenthood facilities around the nation to inquire about obtaining and taking the abortion pill.

Those phone calls reveal that Planned Parenthood does not check gestational age before sending a woman the abortion pill, does not require an ultrasound, does not provide screening or counseling, will not check for contraindications or Rh negativity, will send the abortion pill to a different address upon request to avoid parental knowledge, will not follow up with the patient after she takes the drug, and will send the abortion pill even if the woman isn't sure she is going to take it at that time.

By failing to require any safety measures, Planned Parenthood (and other abortion pill vendors) functions as a drug dispensary instead of as a medical provider for patients. This process is putting women at increased risk should they experience any abortion pill-related complications, including hemorrhage, incomplete abortion, or life-threatening infection.

Abortion Pill Exposed

In addition, Planned Parenthood staff can be heard in the video referring to the baby as "tissue," and avoiding the truth about the symptoms associated with the abortion pill — including downplaying the extent of the bleeding that occurs.

One Planned Parenthood representative even claims that taking the abortion pill is safer for the mother than “carrying to term." This is a misconception based on one study by two pro-abortion researchers who found abortion to be safer than childbirth, and those results have never been successfully replicated.

The HHS/FDA letter further notes that the Ethics & Public Policy Center's recent analysis of a large insurance claims database found a nearly 11% rate of serious adverse events, including sepsis, infection, hemorrhage, and more. This rate is 22 times higher than the FDA's rate listed on the mifepristone label. "These results show that serious complications in everyday use are much more common than the current label suggests and highlight that real‑world risks have not been fully addressed," the letter states. In addition:

Live Action’s investigation also documents underreporting of complications. Women experiencing adverse events are routinely instructed to seek emergency care without disclosing that abortion pills caused their condition. This practice distorts safety data, undermines pharmacovigilance, and deprives regulators of the accurate information necessary to fulfill their statutory obligations. The FDA’s continued reliance on outdated clinical trials and incomplete reporting has produced a regulatory record that no longer reflects actual use or risk.

Live Action is requesting the following of HHS and the FDA:

• Immediately suspend the approval of mifepristone as an abortifacient and prohibit the distribution of abortion pills through mail-order services, telehealth platforms, and retail pharmacies, and limit access to mifepristone to settings where in-person medical evaluation and follow-up care can be carried out.

• Reinstate comprehensive adverse-event reporting requirements to ensure accurate and complete data on complications and outcomes, and for the release of the scientific and clinical evidence relied upon in prior expansions of mifepristone access, including an explanation of data limitations, reporting gaps, and assumptions related to patient safety. 

Commentary:

Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina noted at Live Action's press conference that "We live in a country where getting an abortion has become as easy as walking to your mailbox. That's not healthcare; that is downright dangerous."

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona pointed out at the conference that "emergency rooms increasingly absorb the consequences" when women take the abortion pill, adding that "complications are routinely coded as miscarriages, obscuring the true cause and shifting cost on to public hospitals and taxpayers." He also pointed out that mail-order abortion has made it possible for abusers to obtain the abortion pill, drugging women without their knowledge.

Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas pointed out that "the easy access has put a number of women's lives in danger — those who want to keep their child and raise their child... they will have an abuser often force-feed the pills to them; [abusers] will sneak it into a drink and cost, of course, the life of the child, but horrible damage to the mother." He added that Congress must continue to "provide the oversight to make sure our agencies are clamping down on these bad practices and are doing the research needed to uncover the truth of the danger of this drug."

Rep. Troy Downing of Montana spoke of the personal importance of the pro-life issue to him, as his mother became pregnant with him as an unwed teen and his father was absent by choice. Though her family wanted her to travel to Mexico to abort him (as this was two years before Roe v. Wade), she refused. "As a society, how as humans, do we get to the point where we're willing to go to the mailbox to get a chemical that's going to kill a child? How do you do that without abandoning your basic humanity?" Downing questioned, adding, "I refuse to believe that there's not some mental damage done to any women that goes through this process."

"I'm not going to take the false narrative that abortion care is health care," Downing stated. "It's not health care. Causing the death of a life is not health care — it's the exact opposite of that."

Shanyce Thomas, who was seriously injured after taking the abortion pill under pressure from her boyfriend, shared at the press conference that the abortion pill "nearly cost me my life, and the consequences will stay with me forever." She obtained the drug regimen from Planned Parenthood; days after taking it, she had to be hospitalized due to a "severe infection... that became life-threatening." She was placed on an ECMO machine due to the critical nature of her condition and was in "a medically-induced coma for a month."

Thomas had numerous transfusions, and eventually, "doctors had no choice but to perform a partial hysterectomy. In one moment, my ability to carry children in my future was taken from me, not by choice but by necessity to save my life."

Ryan Anderson of The Ethics & Public Policy Center briefed those at the press conference on how the center investigated the real-world injury rate of the abortion pill. "We saw what happens in the real world to real women, under the current regime where there are no in-person doctor visits," Anderson pointed out.

Dr. George Delgado, who helped to engineer the 'abortion pill reversal' method, told those at the press conference that "chemical abortion carries four times the short-term risks compared to surgical abortion." He added that we now have a "wild, Wild West with allowing and tolerating the procurement of mail-order and telehealth chemical abortion drugs with very, very little medical supervision."

Mayra Rodríguez, a whistleblower who once worked for Planned Parenthood, shared that when she worked there, women would call in, traumatized by what they experienced and saw when taking the abortion pill. "What my former employer has described forever as a back-alley abortion is exactly what the chemical abortion pill is doing," Rodríguez said. "Women are left alone to deal with the pain, with the bleeding, and with the trauma of seeing their baby flushed down the toilet."

She added, "We are here to... ask the administration to tell the FDA to finally remove this drug from the market. Women deserve better. Our communities deserve better. And babies need to be protected.... There's no bigger cartel than the abortion pill right now."

Why It Matters:

Over 25 years ago, mifepristone was approved under a politically accelerated process and has been marketed to women as safe. However, data show that it carries significant risks for women and has been used to end the lives of about 7.5 million preborn children.

Safety regulations surrounding mifepristone have been removed and relaxed with no regard for patient safety in order to expand access. But that increased access comes at the expense of not just the lives of preborn children, but of women's health and well-being.

By hiding the truth about the abortion pill, women are being denied full informed consent.