Source: Family First
MEDIA RELEASE – 2 May 2025
Family First is calling on the Ministry of Health, Health New Zealand and Medsafe to respond to significant new research coming out of the United States that shows that almost one in nine women have serious adverse events after taking the abortion pill, mifepristone.
“The sheer scale of adverse events impacting women needs a response from New Zealand health officials, most importantly to let women know there are serious risks with the taking of these drugs” said Bob McCoskrie, Chief Executive of Family First.
The Ethics and Public Policy Center – a Washington DC-based institute – has released a report entitled “The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event.”
The report analysed the all-payer insurance claims database which included 865,727 prescribed mifepristone-induced abortions from 2017 to 2023. Over this period of time, the researchers discovered that 10.93 percent of women experienced sepsis, infection, haemorrhaging, or other serious adverse events within 45 days following the use of the abortion drug, mifepristone.
“That mifepristone is regularly used and promoted here in New Zealand means the Ministry of Health, Health NZ, and Medsafe have a duty of care to inform women of the real risks of using the drug. Those importing the drug for use must also take responsibility for the real harms this research has uncovered. To continue saying the drug’s use is harmless is demonstrably false and putting women at risk of significant harm” said Mr McCoskrie.
While pro-abortion advocates will try and point to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clinical trials study which indicated a 0.5% likelihood of adverse events, this FDA study is now well out of date; based only on clinical trials; and involving only a fraction of the number of people this new research has studied.
Family First is calling for New Zealand health officials to respond by prioritising women’s health, ensuring the risks of taking mifepristone are clearly spelt out, and that access to the drug is only under a physician’s supervision – not the current situation where the drugs can be obtained over the counter at pharmacies or even via home delivery where there may be very little supervision or after-care.
