National Survey: Americans want safety protocols on abortion pill

According to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), a national survey of 1,600 likely voters has revealed that American voters prioritize safety protocols for the abortion pill over accessibility to the drug and other policies connected to chemical abortions. The survey was conducted over three days in August by McLaughlin & Associates.

Key Takeaways:

A national survey asked 1,600 likely voters their thoughts on the abortion pill.

• It found that 71% of those surveyed approve of requiring a doctor's visit for a woman to obtain the abortion pill — a safety rule that the Biden administration removed.

• 70% of likely voters surveyed also approved of a proposal to "require doctors to screen for and report signs of coercion or abuse" before prescribing the abortion pill.

• Only 16% of those surveyed believe the abortion pill to be "very safe."

The Details:

The majority of the likely voters surveyed self-identified as "pro-choice" on abortion (57%). Forty percent (40%) self-identified as "pro-life." The survey asked if they approved or disapproved of three proposals:

• "Requiring FDA drug labels to accurately report the real-world impact of a drug on the patients that take it."

• "Requiring a doctor’s visit in order for the chemical abortion drug to be prescribed to terminate an unwanted pregnancy."

• "Requiring doctors to screen for and report signs of coercion or abuse before prescribing chemical abortion drugs."

Ninety percent (90%) approved of requiring the FDA's drug labels to "accurately report the real-world impact of a drug on the patients that take it" (emphasis added), and 71% approved of requiring a doctor's visit for a woman to obtain the abortion pill. In addition, 70% approved of a proposal to "require doctors to screen for and report signs of coercion or abuse" before prescribing the abortion pill.

Additional questions asked voters to agree or disagree with abortion pill-related statements. Eighty-one percent (81%) agreed with the statement that "No one should be able to get chemical abortion drugs online or from a foreign country and be able to give them to a woman without her knowledge or consent."

In addition, 69% of those surveyed agreed that "it makes sense for the FDA to bring back those safety precautions" that were on the abortion pill (in-person prescriber visits) under Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump before the Biden administration removed them.

Voters surveyed also expressed doubt about the safety of the abortion pill. Forty-one percent (41%) believe the abortion pill to be safe, but only 16% believe it to be "very safe." Twenty-nine percent (29%) said they don't know if it is safe or not, while 30% — nearly a third — believe the abortion pill is unsafe.

Why It Matters:

In particular, measuring a drug's "real world impact" is important, because clinical trials frequently exclude for a number of factors (or participants) that would not be excluded when used in a real-world scenario.

As Live Action Research Fellow Carole Novielli previously reported, some abortion pill studies that have shown low complication rates were constructed in a way that real life would never be. For example:

One published study in Nature, which relied on the CHAT [California Home Abortion by Telehealth] study for data, claimed that CHAT patients were screened “using a published, standardized no-test protocol, primarily relying on patient medical history to assess medical eligibility.” The study also claimed a much-lower-than-normal rate of ectopic pregnancies.

But, upon closer investigation, it becomes clear that something isn’t quite right with this study.

Buried in the CHAT study is the fact that “[p]atients who had any risk factors for or symptoms of ectopic pregnancy or were potentially beyond the gestational limit of the virtual clinic were referred for pre-abortion ultrasonography,” and only after that, “[e]ligible patients received 200 mg mifepristone and 800 or 1,600 μg buccal or vaginal misoprostol via mail order pharmacy.”

But this means that a “standardized no-test protocol” was NOT actually used in the study, since these patients were screened and then referred for testing to rule out ectopic pregnancy before they received the abortion pills! This is almost certainly the reason why the study shows such an unusually low rate of ectopic pregnancies compared to that of the general population.

This isn’t like a real-life scenario.

When a woman is not participating in a closely-tracked study, she isn’t screened in this way and isn’t referred for any pre-abortion ultrasound — hence the name “no-test protocol.” Opponents of “self-managed” abortion have raised concerns about the “no-test” protocol for failing to rule out ectopic pregnancies before the abortion pill is administered. Even some pro-abortion doctors have warned ER staff to be on guard for undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies among women who have taken the abortion pill, so it’s clear that the CHAT study authors carefully designed their study with extra safeguards to prevent complications.

But those safeguards just aren’t in place in real life.

The Bottom Line:

The survey showed that American voters widely support safety protocols on the abortion pill.

In light of this information, the FDA should work toward bringing back the safety rules that were removed by the Biden administration, including ensuring women receive the abortion pill from a doctor during an in-office appointment rather than online or through tele-health appointments.

The abortion pill has known risks that include incomplete abortion, hemorrhage, infection, and even death.