The Other Abortion Pill Option

Katelyn Jetelina and Heidi Moseson, Your Local Epdemiologist - For a medication abortion in the U.S., patients are given two pills: mifepristone (“mife”) followed by misoprostol (“miso”). The legal cases have focused solely on the first medication: mife. This is because mife was specifically approved by the FDA in 2000 for abortions, to be used followed by miso. Miso, on the other hand, was approved in 1988 for the treatment of . . . stomach ulcers. It was given a warning label that if taken while pregnant, it would induce a miscarriage. In the decades since, miso has been used off-label for medication abortion, induce labor, prevent postpartum hemorrhage, and more... In fact, much of the world relies on miso-only abortions where mife is less accessible.