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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Study: Pill abortion no riskier

Mike Stobbe Associated Press

ATLANTA – Women who use abortion pills rather than the more common surgical method seem to face no greater risk of tubal pregnancy or miscarriage in later pregnancies, according to a new study.

The federally funded research – based on nearly 12,000 Danish women – is considered the best study to date of the impact of the abortion method on subsequent pregnancies.

The vast majority of abortions are called surgical abortions, usually done by vacuuming an embryo or fetus out with a syringe or electric pump.

The U.S. and Danish researchers studied medical abortions, which generally involve a woman ending a pregnancy by taking one tablet of mifespristone – formerly known as RU-486 – followed by about four misoprostol pills a day or two later. The mifepristone destabilizes the connecting tissue between an embryo and the uterus, and the misoprostol causes the uterus to expel the embryo.

Many women find medical abortions preferable because they can be done in the privacy of their homes and can seem less intimidating than surgical abortion, and because just about any doctor can prescribe the pills, experts said.

The U.S. government approved the marketing of mifepristone for medical abortions in 2000, and European countries approved it years earlier.

Today, an estimated 8 percent to 10 percent of the roughly 1.3 million abortions in the United States are done using the pills.

While previous research has shown surgical abortions don’t increase the risk of problems in later pregnancies, little research had been done into the impact of medical abortions.

Generally, surgical abortions completely remove an embryo or fetus and surrounding uterine tissue, but abortions done with pills may leave bits of placenta or other embryonic material. Some doctors have wondered whether that might interfere with subsequent pregnancies, said Dr. Matthew Reeves, a reproductive medicine expert at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

“This kind of squashes any concerns,” said Reeves, who was not involved in the study.

The paper is published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.