Mifepristone is already approved by the FDA for medical abortions. Could it be approved by the FDA for contraception, too?
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned this summer with the Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, abortion proponents have been analyzing the potential to expand the use of abortion drugs. Advancing chemical abortion pills as an oral contraception method – calling it both control - is one possibility they are hoping to research.
But have they weighed the risks to women and their preborn children?
Abortion activist Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, founder of abortion access organizations Women On Waves, Women on Web, and Aid Access, is proposing a research project with a director of obstetrics and gynecology in Sweden who first explored this idea in the 1990s/2000s.
Gomperts has a long history of promoting abortion at any cost, including performing procedures aboard ships near countries where abortion is illegal. She has been open about claiming there is no reason to not have an abortion and that she will not adhere to laws, having stated such in interviews with Politico in 2018 and 2022.
In 2019 the FDA warned Aid Access to stop sending abortion pills to the United States or “advanced provision” pills that women were taking “just in case” they were pregnant.
Gomperts continues to supply “Plan C” medications.
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These abortion activists claim that mifepristone, when prescribed in small doses, blocks progesterone, thins the uterine lining and may stop ovulation. Some scientists claim this could, in theory, function as a once a week or once a month abortion method.
Since it would not always stop ovulation and conception, this would potentially not be a contraceptive, but rather an abortifacient method to end a pregnancy.
This project has not been formally approved for lack of funding and fear that women might save prescriptions to increase the doses for the use in medical abortions. Advocates for this project have been open to say that this is not just a new idea for birth control. Instead, they say this is a ploy to secure mifepristone access around the globe.
Researching other uses for mifepristone could secure it as a drug with legitimate medical purposes other than abortion. Those behind the research also state they want to be free from regulations that govern abortion providers when dispensing this abortion drug.
“It's hard to imagine how these researchers could think that lowering progesterone in otherwise healthy women would be desirable,” said Christa Brown, director of Medical Impact for Heartbeat International. “Their intention to use mifepristone as a means of birth control without considering the safety and well-being of women is obviously not well thought out and somewhat appalling.”
Brown noted that mifepristone is a synthetic anti-progesterone steroid, meaning that using it regularly could be dangerous for the body.
“Progesterone is one of many hormones that work together like instruments in a symphony do,” she said. “Imbalances or deficiencies in one hormone affects others.”
The FDA warns that Mifeprex (mifepristone) can have serious side effects. The list of the most common side effects includes nausea, weakness, fever/chills, vomiting, headache, diarrhea, and dizziness.
Purposely lowering progesterone levels can potentially set up women up for some miserable symptoms such as low libido, headaches, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, mood changes, menstrual cycle irregularities and abnormal uterine bleeding, weight gain, and hair loss.
As the full list of mifepristone side effects is extensive it has yet to be determined if this research will pose any risk to women.
We also do not yet know if women will be forewarned of these side effects and whether they will be willing to tolerate them.
As abortion proponents look for ways to break down stigmas of abortion drugs and secure unlimited access, have they fully considered what is best for women? It warrants asking that if they are successful in their efforts for unfettered chemical abortion access how this will impact women.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
