Kelly Baden (Vice President for Public Policy) debunks anti-abortion misinformation about mifepristone, affirming its decades-long safety record, global approval, and critical role in telehealth and self-managed abortion, while exposing politically motivated tactics that restrict access and fuel stigma.
Guttmacher expert Kelly Baden debunks anti-abortion myths
Video
Transcript: Medication abortion, especially mifepristone, has become the target of widespread misinformation. Let's separate some common myths from reality.
Mifepristone is one of the medications used in medication abortion in the US. The anti-abortion movement keeps making false claims about its safety, which has real policy implications that can make care harder to get.
The truth is, mifepristone is a safe and effective medication backed by decades of research. It is approved in at least 100 countries and endorsed by leading medical authorities like the World Health Organization and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Another area of anti-abortion misinformation is their exaggeration of potential complications by using shoddy science, but the research tells the real story. While symptoms like heavy bleeding and cramping are normal aspects of a medication abortion, serious adverse events are very rare and occur in well below one percent of cases. Of course, patient safety is paramount, but selective framing of long-established data as being new or alarming is a politically motivated tactic to create a culture of fear and stigma around abortion at a time when reproductive rights are already under attack.
Additional myths, like those suggesting that medication abortion requires increased barriers to access, are deeply harmful. They get in the way of someone seeking or getting the abortion care they need. In reality, medication abortion has been proven safe for telehealth and self-managed abortion and in the deeply fractured US abortion access landscape, where 12 states are enforcing total abortion bans, these are critical pathways for people to get the care they need.
Attacks on medication abortion aren't rooted in science. They're about political ideology. When we correct misinformation, we're not just setting the record straight. We're defending evidence-based medicine and protecting access to essential reproductive health care for all.