December 1, 2021

Study Shows Increased Risk of ER Visit After Chemical Abortion

A new study shows that increased access to abortion pills could be the cause of increased abortion-related emergency room visits.

The study, released by the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) and published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology, used Medicaid claims data to analyze the 423,000 confirmed abortions and 121,283 confirmed subsequent visits to the emergency room. The study included emergencies that occurred within 30 days of abortion by women over 13 years old who had at least one identifiable pregnancy between 1999 and 2015.

The data shows that abortion-related emergency room visits increased over 5000% between 2002 and 2015. In that same period, chemical abortions (abortions completed via the abortion pill) increased from 4.4% to 34.1% of all abortions.

Key findings from the CLI study include:

  • Women who had chemical abortions were 53% more likely to visit the ER for an abortion-related reason. They were 22% more likely to visit the ER for any reason.
  • For every 100 abortions, the study found 35 abortion-related ER visits. The rate of ER visits for surgical abortions increased by 315% from 2002-2015, while the rate for chemical abortions increased by 507%.
  • Women who have a chemical abortion, and then have a second abortion of any time within 12 months were more than twice as likely to end up in the ER.
  • Over 60% of abortion-related ER visits after chemical abortions in 2015 were miscoded by hospital staff as miscarriages. Whether intentional or mistaken, this could put those patients at increase risk or hide the dangers of chemical abortions.
The FDA will decide on Dec. 16 whether to end REMS safeguards that regulate the distribution of abortion pills. If the Biden FDA chooses to allow widespread mail distribution of this DYI abortion method, that could create a public health risk for women throughout the US.