Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — A federal judge in Texas is holding a hearingA a lawsuitOn Wednesday morning, it is seeking a nationwide recall of mifepristone, the first drug in the medical abortion process.
Data analyzed by CNN shows that Mifepristone is safer than some common low-risk medications, including Penicillin and Viagra.
And the US Food and Drug Administration indicated that there are 5 deaths for every million people who used the drug “Mifepristone”, since its approval in 2000.
This means that the fatality rate is 0.0005%.
The risk of death from penicillin, a common antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections such as pneumonia, is four times greater than from mifepristone, according to a study of life-threatening allergic reactions.
And a study presented by the US Food and Drug Administration revealed that the risk of death from taking Viagra, which is used to treat erectile dysfunction, is regarding 10 times greater.
“Mifepristone has been used for more than 20 years, by more than five million people who are able to conceive,” said Ushma Upadhyay, MD, assistant professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.
The lawsuit, brought once morest the FDA by National Anti-Abortion Medical Associations, essentially seeks “the withdrawal of mifepristone and misoprostol as FDA-approved chemical abortion drugs.”
The plaintiffs are asking to protect women and girls by overturning the Food and Drug Administration’s procedures for approving chemical abortion drugs.
If the lawsuit is successful, 40 million women of childbearing age would lose medical abortion care nationwide, according to data from abortion rights advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America, along with 24.5 million women of childbearing age who live in states that prohibit abortion.
Medical abortion has become the most common method of abortion, accounting for more than half of all abortions in the United States in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Abigail Aiken, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin who leads a research group on medical abortion, said the growing popularity of medical abortion is largely due to its accessibility.
“It reduces the cost and the barriers… many people may not want to go to the clinic,” she added.
Aiken told CNN that abortion clinics and telehealth organizations may rely on misoprostol for abortions, if mifepristone is withdrawn.
Although misoprostol-only abortions are used worldwide, they are less effective and associated with serious complications, often more painful, than the combination of mifepristone and misoprostol.
Aiken told CNN that mifepristone and misoprostol together are still considered the gold standard.
Women who used the combination of the two pills were less likely to develop serious complications than those who followed the misoprostol-only regimen.
Prior to the ruling, 19 states already prohibit tele-abortion care, limiting access to medical abortion.
And regarding half of adults in the United States are still not sure if medical abortion is currently legal in their state, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Experts say the confusion will only get worse over time.
