(CNA) Pro-life leaders are expressing concern after the inclusion of abortion drugs in the World Health Organization (WHO)’s latest annual list of essential medicines, noting that the drugs can be “dangerous.”
The Model List of Essential Medicines 2025, released on “International Safe Abortion Day,” had a section dedicated to abortion drugs, which for the first time did not include the caveat that these medicines are not legal or culturally acceptable everywhere.
According to WHO, “the list no longer carries the boxed caveat, in place since 2005, that singled out these medicines as only to be used where legally permitted or culturally acceptable.”
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Dr. Ingrid Skop, vice president and director of medical affairs for Charlotte Lozier Institute and a board-certified OB-GYN, expressed concern that these drugs were being recommended for use around the world, noting that abortion drugs “have a complication rate four times higher than surgical abortion.”
“As many as 1 in 5 women will suffer a complication and 1 in 20 will require surgical completion,” Skop said. “Also, a recent study found that more than a third of women who used abortion drugs were unprepared for the amount of pain and bleeding they encountered.”
“Yet, the WHO is recommending them for use in Third World countries with poor health care systems, where emergency care may be limited or nonexistent,” Skop continued.
Tweet This: Chemical abortion drugs have a complication rate four times higher than surgical abortion.
Calling the action a part of WHO’s “population control and eugenic agenda,” Skop urged WHO to “instead devote more attention to helping countries obtain the resources they need to impact maternal mortality, such as blood-banking for hemorrhage and antibiotics and critical care for infections.”
Michael New, a senior associate scholar at Charlotte Lozier Institute and assistant professor of practice at The Catholic University of America, added that the WHO’s decision was “disappointing” but “unsurprising.”
“The World Health Organization has always had a very strong pro-abortion bias,” New said, noting that the group’s website calls abortion a “critical public health and human rights issue.”
New also noted that WHO’s website “wrongly claims that ‘evidence shows that restricting access to abortions does not reduce the number of abortions’ even though many, many studies show the incidence of abortion is impacted by its legal status.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Political Affairs Communications Director Kelsey Pritchard expressed gratitude that the U.S. withdrew from WHO in January.
“Thank goodness President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pro-abortion WHO, and they keep proving that decision right,” she said. “The abortion industry — including foreign, criminal abortion drug rings — is flooding every state with these drugs whether it is legal or not.”
Pritchard also noted that abortion drugs can be “dangerous.”
“A mounting body of scientific evidence and real-life horror stories show abortion drugs are far more dangerous than advertised, exposing the serious risks they pose to women and girls as well as unborn children,” she said.
“Week after week these dangerous drugs cause more tragedies: Women coerced and poisoned, girls rushed to the ER, mothers dying along with their babies — all while the abortion industry profits from deception and abusers benefit from unfettered drug access,” Pritchard continued.
Pritchard anticipated the FDA’s review of the drug, saying that “we’re confident once the evidence is examined, it will be undeniable how harmful these drugs truly are.”
Editor's note: This article was published by Catholic News Agency and is reprinted with permission.
