Smoke & Mirrors: Big Abortion claims 'junk science' threatens abortion pill

The Guttmacher Institute, a former research arm and “special affiliate” of Planned Parenthood, is utilizing proverbial smoke and mirrors tactics to convince the public that re-examining the safety of the abortion pill is 'junk science."

Live Action News responds to some of the claims.

The Details:

Claim #1: Questioning the safety of abortion pills is "junk science"

Guttmacher released a report entitled, "The War on Mifepristone: How Junk Science and False Narratives Threaten US Abortion Access."

But it was “junk science” which led us to abortion on demand.

As previously documented, prior to Roe, Big Abortion completely fabricated the numbers of women who died from self-managed illegal abortion, swaying lawmakers and the public alike to decriminalize abortion with "junk science" (false) data.

Today, in a scheme to push abortion pills across the country, the narrative has suddenly changed as Big Abortion now claims self-managed abortion is perfectly safe. The fact is that legalized in-clinic abortion under the supposed care of medical professionals was never free of complications and deaths.

Data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 1973 to 2021 recorded 465 abortion-related deaths from legal abortion, with additional amounts reportedly dying from illegal abortions.

Claim #2: "False information and faulty science"

Guttmacher and Big Abortion are heavily attacking a recent insurance data analysis which claimed that abortion pill complications seen in real-world data versus clinical data showed a 22 times greater complication rate than previously reported.

The analysis, “The Abortion Pill Harms Women,” published by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), states that nearly 11% of women (10.93%) experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or other serious or life-threatening adverse events following a mifepristone abortion. This means one in ten women experience at least one serious complication from taking mifepristone within 45 days — 22 times higher than the “less than 0.5 percent” serious adverse events rate reported by the FDA on the mifepristone label.

"Countering faulty science in this context is not only about correcting the record; it is about protecting access to essential care and defending the integrity of evidence-based medicine," Guttmacher wrote.

Guttmacher argues in part that the EPPC's "real world" analysis does not fall in line with what has been previously reported in clinical trials, some which go back decades and involve old protocols and safety measures.

On paper, clinical trials generally do things by the book — unlike what Big Abortion is doing in the real world, where they repeatedly flout FDA safety protocols and best practices by failing to:

• Confirm gestational age, prescribing the abortion pill well past FDA-approved limits, which likely increases the failure rate.

• Conduct lab tests or blood work.

•  Rule out a potentially dangerous ectopic pregnancy before prescribing the deadly drugs.

• Selling the pills in "advance" of an actual pregnancy.

A deeper dive into abortion pill studies reveals multiple conflicts of interest, as many of the sponsors, funders, clinic sites, study authors, and journals are tied to foundations that have invested in the abortion pill business, leaving many to question the results.

Claim #3: "Mifepristone's Exemplary Safety Record"

The mechanism put in place was for the drug's manufacturer (Danco, GenBioPro, etc.) to report adverse events to the FDA after being informed by prescribers of the drug that there had been a death or a serious complication resulting from the drug. Prescribers would in theory be notified directly by the client who took the abortion pill. That person should have been instructed to contact the prescriber if there were any concerns or complications.

But that is not what's happening.

In 2015, the Obama administration got rid of the safety requirement that called for reporting of adverse events... other than death. In other words, even if someone were to take mifepristone and for some reason lose her fertility altogether, or experience a catastrophic, life-changing injury — yet survived — this would no longer be reported to the drug's manufacturer or to the FDA.

An argument from silence really proves nothing at all. If there is no data about non-fatal injuries, then the safety of the drug remains unproven.

In addition, Big Abortion has for decades sought to avoid the reporting of complications and hide adverse events by instructing abortion clients at the point of sale to visit the emergency room if experiencing complications, where they should lie to medical personnel, claiming that their complications are a result of natural miscarriage — intentionally misreporting abortion pill complications. To seal the deal, Big Abortion has also implied that ER staff should lie about and bury abortion pill complications.

This scheme has almost certainly skewed decades of adverse events data on the abortion pill.

Today, the full record, including any conflicts surrounding experts who approved the drug, remains hidden as many of the abortion pill’s financiers also remain secret; others continue funding abortion pill studies, sponsors, location sites, Journals, and study authors.

At least one "expert" interviewed by Columbia University journalists acknowledged that his name was kept secret, admitting, “It’s definitely not standard. It’s not routine; you can look up almost every other drug that I was the primary medical officer for and my name would appear right there on the review.”

Was the data properly analyzed, or did bias in favor of abortion take precedence over actual safety?

FDA hid abortion pill experts approval drug

Yet, even with all of this manipulation, data on the FDA’s 2023 mifepristone label acknowledged that 2.9 to 4.6% of women who take the drug require emergency care, and six percent (6%) who took the abortion pill in a telehealth study required emergency care. The manufacturer’s medication guide notes that up to 7 % of women will “need a surgical procedure” to complete the abortion.

Claim #4: Science on mifepristone’s safety and efficacy is settled

This notion that the science is settled is ridiculous, given that their own researchers have published data they now claim has changed or been updated.

Still, it is quite the claim coming from the same industry which redefined the settled science that life begins at fertilization and has repeatedly changed prenatal development markers and definitions in order to cosign profitable abortions.

Claim #5: Selectively emphasizing “real-world” data over clinical trials

Guttmacher attempts to convince readers that clinical trial data is the only data to be trusted.

The report links to FDA definitions of things like a "serious" adverse event, while the report fails to cite from the FDA the importance of real-world data:

FDA has a long history of using what we currently call real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) to monitor and evaluate the postmarket safety of approved drugs. RWE has also been used historically to support effectiveness, but on a more limited basis. Advances in the availability and analysis of RWD have increased the potential for generating robust RWE to support FDA regulatory decisions. 

FDA is committed to realizing the full potential of fit-for-purpose RWD to generate RWE that will advance the development of therapeutic products and strengthen regulatory oversight of medical products across their lifecycle.

"There are many reasons that someone who has had a medication abortion might present at an ER, including to confirm that they are no longer pregnant or for reassurance that the bleeding they are experiencing is normal," Guttmacher claimed.

Rather than diminish the experiences and concerns of women as not "serious" even after they have been instructed to go to the ER rather than to follow-up with prescribers, Guttmacher should instead point to the failures of Danco, GenBioPro (and now, potentially Evita Solutions as well) to police or decertify abortion pill prescribers who continue to flout FDA requirements.

Reality Check:

Guttmacher's report is not without bias. Author Rachel K. Jones "serves on the board of directors of the National Abortion Federation" according to her own bio. Author Kelly Baden has worked for Planned Parenthood, Physicians for Reproductive Health and EMILY's List.

The report points to research published by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), the Society of Family Planning (SFP), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), Gynuity Health Projects, and the University of California, among others. which have heavy ties to Big Abortion investors.

They cite a National Academies of Sciences report financed in part by Warren Buffett and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, which seeded the start-up of the abortion pill manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, LLC, and at least one study linked in the report was financed by the Packard, which invested $14.2 million in Danco and is also investing millions in GenBioPro, Inc.

Study authors Karen R. Meckstroth and Mitchell D. Creinin are “consultants for Danco, Inc.” Additionally, author Rebecca Gomperts founded Aid Access, which profits from the sale of abortion drugs; author Alice Mark is a NAF medical advisor.

Live Action News previously detailed conflicts of interest surrounding authors Daniel Grossman, Beverly Winikoff, Antonia Biggs, Abigail Aiken , Ushma Upadhyay, Tracey Weitz, Melissa Grant, or Elizabeth Raymond.

The Bottom Line:

Thousands of women are flooding emergency rooms after taking abortion-inducing drugs. We have seen the abortion industry's sleight of hand before: Blame the woman while protecting Big Abortion.

Rather than questioning why Big Abortion is not following up with their own paying customers, instead abandoning them to potentially overcrowded emergency rooms, Guttmacher seems to be downplaying abortion client visits to ERs as non-serious events or even overreactions.

In the end, Guttmacher's report is simply smoke and mirrors, meant to hide the fact that for decades Big Abortion has failed women, failed to properly track adverse events, and failed to be truthful about abortion pill risks.

Now that the FDA is taking a serious look at the abortion pill, Big Abortion is running scared.