by Bob Vander Plaats
The following column originally appeared on May 6, 2025, on TheBlaze.com.
A bombshell new study has discovered that women are suffering serious harm from chemical abortions at a rate 22 times higher than the FDA or abortion pill manufacturers are reporting to patients.
The federal government must now step in to protect women. It can no longer shirk its responsibility by “leaving it up to the states.”
The study from the Ethics & Public Policy Center, or EPPC ( www.eppc.org/stop-harming-women/ ) – which analyzed insurance claims of 330 million U.S. patients and over 850,000 cases of mifepristone abortions since 2017 – is the largest and most comprehensive study ever conducted on the effects of America’s most common chemical abortion drug.
But while the FDA and abortion drug manufacturers claim serious side effects in only 0.5 percent of cases, actual insurance claims from patients reveal the number much higher: Nearly 1 in 9 women experience severe or life-threatening events within 45 days of taking mifepristone, including sepsis, hemorrhage, blood transfusion, infection, and surgeries tied directly to the abortion drug.
If a drug is this dangerous, Big Pharma should not be allowed to hide its risks from women.
As nearly 2 out of every 3 abortions in the U.S. are now chemical (according to the Planned Parenthood-founded Guttmacher Institute), that suggests hundreds of thousands of women over the past 10 years have suffered serious complications – not “rare” or “safe” by any stretch of the definition.
By contrast, according to the EPPC, the federal government’s claims of the drug’s “safety” rely on small and outdated trials – some conducted over 40 years ago – on a combined total of only 31,000 mostly healthy women in doctor-controlled environments.
In real world environments, however, the abortion drug has proven significantly more dangerous.
The EPPC study found 10.93% of women suffered significant harm from taking the drug. What other FDA-approved drug would tolerate such a high degree of serious adverse events?
In light of this information, the federal government can no longer justify the lifting of oversight and protocols on the abortion drug. Under Presidents Obama and Biden, critical safety measures like in-person supervision by a doctor and adverse event reporting were eliminated. These federal safeguards must be restored. And the drug’s safety and FDA approval must be reevaluated.
This is no mere state issue. Abortion drugs are often shipped across state lines without a doctor’s involvement. Pro-abortion states like California cannot be allowed to pump this dangerous drug into Texas, for example, or other states that take reasonable measures to protect women and their babies.
Thus, the leaders we send to Washington, D.C., cannot be allowed to hide this information under the guise of “leaving it up to the states.” Unless our federal leaders act, even if 49 states recognize the dangers of mifepristone, one callously pro-abortion state with a post office will still be able to ship out the pills, harming thousands upon thousands of women.
Regardless of opinions on abortion, all Americans should agree that women have a right to accurate information about the drugs they’re taking. If a drug is this dangerous, Big Pharma should not be allowed to hide its risk from women. And the FDA cannot turn a blind eye, effectively becoming complicit in a cover-up.
We must demand the FDA take action. I have already joined with dozens of pro-family leaders across the U.S. in writing a letter to President Trump, urging, “All the original safety protocols on mifepristone must be restored, and the FDA must investigate mifepristone, reconsidering its approval altogether. The lives of women and unborn children and the rights of states depend on it.”
Furthermore, here in Iowa, where we have the honor of the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus, we will work to make safeguarding women from the dangers of mifepristone an issue for any candidate who seeks to follow President Trump as president. We will work to make it an issue for any candidate who seeks congressional office. And we urge voters to insist upon the same of their candidates: If you seek federal office, you need to see safeguarding women as a federal issue.
