Published May 10, 2026
In “Mifepristone as a Tool of Coercion” (op-ed, May 5), Sierra McClain reports on women allegedly coerced into taking chemical abortion drugs as a result of the Biden administration removing the longstanding requirement that women see a medical professional in person to be prescribed and receive the chemical abortion drug mifepristone.
The safeguard of an in-person appointment protects against coercion. It’s also necessary to rule out ectopic pregnancy (in which chemical abortion could be deadly to the mother) and to determine the age of the unborn child (which is important because chemical abortion too far into pregnancy poses serious risks to the mother).
Our research at the Ethics and Public Policy Center bears this out. We conducted the largest known study of the health effects of mifepristone-induced abortions. Drawing on an all-payer insurance claims database that includes more than 850,000 prescribed abortions from 2017 to 2023, we discovered that, within 45 days following the prescription, nearly 11% of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging or another serious adverse event (as classified by a team of doctors following a Food and Drug Administration definition and National Institutes of Health methodology). That real-world rate of serious adverse events is at least 22 times higher than the less than 0.5% in clinical trials reported on the drug label.
We also found that the rate of serious adverse events was significantly higher after the FDA removed the in-person dispensing requirement. The disparity was stark for ectopic pregnancy: The data indicate that the inappropriate provision of mifepristone to a woman with an ectopic pregnancy was between three and six times more likely with remote dispensing.
President Trump can correct the Biden administration’s mistake. Restoring the in-person safeguard would protect women’s health and ensure they aren’t being coerced.
Jamie Bryan Hall is the Director of Data Analysis and a Fellow in the Life and Family Initiative at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
