For many years we have been categorically told that abortion is “safe”. When the pro life community has dared to suggest otherwise, we have been labelled as everything from dangerous conspiracy theorists, to lunatics and science deniers.
But is that true? Setting aside the fact that abortion is never safe for the baby – who is always killed – what is the truth regarding the safety of abortion when it comes to their mothers? Are we in the pro life movement peddling disinformation and ignoring decades of “settled science”, simply to further our own narrative? Or have we in fact, been the lone voices of truth in a torrid sea of deception all along?
What do the “experts” say?
Planned Parenthood’s website says (as of the 2nd of May) that: “Medication abortion is very safe. In fact, it’s safer than many other medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra.”
They also say that while serious complications can happen they are “really rare”
Britain’s British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) says that receiving these pills by post after only a phone call is: “a safe and legal way to end a pregnancy before 10 weeks gestation without needing to attend a clinic for treatment.” While the NHS says that abortions are “are generally very safe”
The BBC published a piece last year in light of the legal challenges taking place in the US. The article (which, as usual, was written from a pro choice perspective) says that:
“For over 20 years, the FDA, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists (ACOG) and other mainstream medical organisations, have maintained that both mifepristone and misoprostol are safe for use.”
It goes on to say:
“Increasingly, anti-abortion campaigners have said that abortion medication, which they call "chemical abortion", is risky and ineffective. However, their claims are not supported by leading medical organisations, such as the World Health Organisation and the American Medical Association.”
Even Chat GPT agrees. I typed in the simple question “is the abortion pill safe?”, with no other qualifying information, and the returned response was:
“Yes, the abortion pill is generally safe for most people when used correctly and under medical guidance. It has a long-standing safety record, and serious complications are rare.”
It looks like we may have been dangerous science deniers all this time after all…or have we?
The bombshell not heard around the world
A new study from the United States, has found that the rate of serious health complications is “about 22 times” higher than stated on the label for the abortion pill Mifepristone (as reported by the New York Post). Yes you read that correctly…22 times HIGHER!
The comprehensive analysis by the Foundation for the Restoration of America - examining over 865,000 insurance claims from 2017 to 2023 - found that nearly 11% of chemical abortions resulted in serious health complications, including infection, hemorrhage, or sepsis. In the final year of the study, this rose to 11.2%.
This rate is substantially higher than the <0.5% complication rate reported on the FDA-approved label for Mifepristone, which is used in almost all medical abortions in the US and UK.
To put it into perspective, 86% of the abortions in England and Wales in 2022, were medical abortions. 216,184 in total. If 11% of these resulted in serious complications as this new data suggests, that would translate to 23,780 women who experienced health complications as a result of the abortion pill in one year!
Bear in mind, this data set only captures official complaints where treatment was sought, so if anything it’s an under-count!
Dr Doug Truex, founder of the foundation which conducted the report, has highlighted that if the FDA found complication rates of this magnitude in any other drug, it would likely be removed from the market immediately. He said explicitly in an interview (as reported by The Daily Wire this morning) “anything north of 2%, they’d shut it down”!
Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, had this to say in response:
“As a board-certified OB/GYN who has practiced for approximately two decades, I have cared for many women who have been lied to about the safety of abortion drugs and suffered significant complications from them,”
she went on.
“Women deserve fully informed consent about the dangers of these drugs and this data shows that more than 1 in 10 women who take them will suffer a severe complication,” she added.
“This is a public health crisis that should be further investigated immediately by the FDA — especially in light of its systematic removal of medical oversight from these drugs.”
Is this really a surprise?
Well, in short, no. This isn’t a revelation. We have been citing studies and first hand evidence for years, detailing the harm that abortion does to women, as well as evidence to suggest that the Department of Health massively under-reports abortion complications.
In 2023 the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID) - which is part of the Department of Health - published a one off report using data from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). This report showed that abortion complication rates were 12 times higher than had previously been reported by abortion providers in the Abortion Notification system (ANS).
However, this report (while much more accurate than the ANS reporting) missed out some key NHS codes, including the code to record medical abortions which were incomplete resulting in retained products of conception (that’s baby body parts in case you were wondering).
A freedom of information request made by a Christian doctor, revealed how much worse the picture actually is, when you take these missing codes into account.
The data from the OHID report and the Freedom of Information responses. are shown in the graph below.
It shows that across England in the two year period up to 2023, more than 10,000 women (per year) were treated at an NHS hospital for complications arising from an abortion.
However the ‘official’ statutory reporting by the abortion providers (ANS), stated just 300 women had abortion complications in 2022.
To put another way, NHS hospitals report treating about 35 times more abortion complications in 2022 than that reported by the abortion providers.
As already stated above, the new report from the US (if it is accurate) would suggest that serious complications would in fact be somewhere north of 20,000 – double what we have found here. So the 10,000 revealed by this FOI data, seems to indicate that either these women are suffering in silence without seeking treatment, or the NHS is coding many of these instances as something else.
What’s more, FOI information also shows 1-in-17 women in the UK, having an induced medical abortions, are subsequently treated at an NHS hospital for complications arising from an incomplete abortion with retained products of conception. Thanks to data obtained from five NHS Ambulance Trusts in England, we also know that emergency ambulance responses for complications arising after a medical abortion, are three times higher for women using pills-by-post at home, compared to those who have their medical abortion in a clinic.
Can you imagine the government, NHS or the British people standing for failure rates like this in any other medical scenario? I certainly can’t!
In further evidence, a Finnish study involving over 42,000 women, found that the rate of complications was four times higher in medical abortions compared to surgical ones .
Finland – which actually has some of the most complete reporting and record linkage systems in the world – also has data which indicates a 15.6% rate for hemorrhage after early medical abortion. Their figures show a 20% total complication rate for the same.
And these are just the immediate physical consequences. For instance, abortion has been consistently linked to an increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight in subsequent pregnancies. The leading systematic review on the subject identified a clear dose-dependent relationship: the risk of these complications rises with the number of abortions, increasing by 36% after one abortion and up to 93% after multiple abortions.
What about mental health?
By far the majority of abortions in the UK (around 97%) are performed under ground C of the Abortion Act, which is the “social clause” an sanctions abortion for reasons of “increased risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman”.
Almost all (99%) of these abortions are performed because of a risk to the woman’s mental health. Meaning that her mental health would be more adversely affected by continuing with the pregnancy than by a termination.
However, in 2011 the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, published a review of relevant studies and information entitled: Induced Abortion and Mental health. It stated that:
“The rates of mental health problems for women with an unwanted pregnancy were the same, whether they had an abortion or gave birth.”
Around the same time, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists updated its policy titled “The Care for Women Requesting Induced Abortion”. The guidelines stated that:
“Women with an unintended pregnancy should be informed that the evidence suggests that they are no more or less likely to suffer adverse psychological sequelae whether they have an abortion or continue with the pregnancy and have the baby”.
What’s more, the latest review by the leading researcher on abortion and mental health in the world (who is pro choice), has concluded “that at the present time there is no credible evidence that abortion has mental health benefits.”
But is there more to this story?
The largest ever quantitative synthesis and analysis of research (published in the British Journal of Psychiatry covering 22 studies and more than 800 000 women), concluded that:
“Women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81% increased risk of mental health problems”.
Another study from Finland published in the British Medical Journal, associated abortion with a 370% increased rate of suicide compared to the general population.
A study titled: Abortion Changes You, reported that 83% of the women said they were changed by their abortions, with 77% saying the change was negative.
I could go on and on and on and on and on. There is a wealth of evidence to show that abortion harms women.
We have been told for decades that abortion is safe – not just for women, but for society. We have been reassured that the procedure is simple, the risks minimal, and the emotional toll negligible. But the data tells a different story – one of pain, silence, and systemic suppression.
It is not compassionate to ignore the harm that thousands of women are quietly enduring. It is not empowerment to downplay the trauma, physical complications, and long-term emotional fallout. And it is not health care to offer a procedure cloaked in euphemisms and shrouded from honest scrutiny.
Behind every statistic is a woman who bled too long. A woman who ended up in A&E. A woman who couldn’t sleep. A woman who thought she would feel relief but felt despair. A woman who was told it was “safe” – and found herself irrevocably changed. Lest we forget the victims of the abortion industry, like Sarah Dunn who have died because of these procedures.
This is not an attack on women, this is a call to defend them, and their unborn children. The truth has been buried for too long. It’s time we unearthed it – not with judgement, but with justice.
Because no woman deserves to be harmed in the name of choice. And no society that claims to value life can afford to ignore what the evidence is now making unmistakably clear – abortion doesn’t just end one life. Too often, it breaks another.