The harm of drug-induced abortion

The abortion lobby in Malta has been telling all women in Malta that “approximately 90 per cent of abortions are done with a simple procedure using the abortion pills Mifepristone and Misoprostol”.

The lobby also declared in the press: “We aid and abet abortion” (November 20, 2023), with three medical doctors boasting that they are helping people in Malta have abortions and that a year later, 500 women had already received abortion pills at home through a local service.

On March 10, 2025, Live Action USA published an article titled ‘The abortion pill is so dangerous it needs a rare safety requirement’.

It argued that the abortion pill Mifepristone is under a special regulation of the Food and Drug Administration. FDA is the federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services of the US. 

The regulation, called Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), is a rare safety protocol reserved for drugs with serious safety concerns. Very few drugs require REMS, which highlights the associated risk of the pill Mifepristone.

The reasons for a REMS designation is that Mifepristone has been associated with serious complications, such as haemorrhaging, infection and even death. 

There have been about 25 reported deaths since the drug was introduced in the US some 20 years ago. REMS includes measures like provider certification, patient agreement forms and controlled dispensing conditions.

Live Action views the pill as not only dangerous to women but also as a human rights violation toward preborn children. They emphasise the need for stricter regulation or a complete removal of Mifepristone from the market.

Besides, when a medical abortion fails, the unborn child is not expelled and the pregnancy continues, there are documented risks to the developing baby, particularly physical birth defects. 

A new study in the US reveals potential harmful effects of drug-induced abortion. Using animal models, researchers of the University of Steubenville, Ohio, US, proposed a potential basis for links between medical abortion and depression and anxiety behaviours.

After more than three years of research, the researchers released the findings of their study showing significant negative biological and behavioural consequences caused by abortion.

The study, Biological, Behavioural, and Physiological Consequences of Drug-Induced Pregnancy Termination at First-Trimester — Human Equivalent in an Animal Model, examined the effect of Mifepristone and Misoprostol in rats in a controlled environment.

Do-it-yourself medical abortions seem to be going on very recklessly in Malta- Tony Mifsud

Published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, the study found significant and adverse behavioural changes in the pregnant rats given the abortion-inducing drugs compared to the rats who did not receive the drugs or rats that received the drugs but were not pregnant.

Among the biological, physiological and behavioural changes exhibited by the rats in the abortion group were a loss of appetite, decreased exploratory movement, decreased self-care and changes in vaginal impedance – a factor that appears to relate to fecundity or the ability to reproduce – that were not present in the pregnant rats that carried their pregnancy to term.

The findings suggest behaviours consistent with a wealth of scientific literature documenting the effects of moderate to severe stress on animal models, which scientists have long used due to the similarities in brain mechanisms between rats and humans.

“This is breaking new ground,” says Stephen Sammut, professor of psychology, who led the research.

“In the animal model, we observed depression-like behaviours and we saw anxiety-like behaviours. The biochemistry indicated potentially long-term effects.

“Medical abortion researchers focused on how fast the drug could kill the baby and how much effort it would take on the part of the abortionists to handle complications,” said Donna Harrison, executive director of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynaecologists .

“This study (the first not performed by the abortion industry) raises serious concerns about mental health effects of drug-induced abortions and the differences between spontaneous and induced abortion. Such studies should have been performed long before drug-induced abortion was allowed on the market.”

Sammut hopes to investigate, in detail, also the potential for reversing the effects of the abortion-inducing drugs.

Do-it-yourself medical abortions seem to be going on very recklessly in Malta. They are totally unregulated, with no medical supervision and assistance, and with many mothers possibly suffering many medical complications, alone, in their homes. Emergency and accident clinics in Malta are probably having cases of botched medical abortions. Are not the medical authorities in Malta concerned about these medical abortions?

Apparently, health professionals in Malta have already raised concerns about a growing number of do-it-yourself medical abortions occurring in Malta.

This should be a concern also to the Medical Council of Malta. We came to know lately, however, that the council has not been functioning for the last three years and that, up to a year ago, it had over 80 complaints, inquiries or investigations – some dating back to 2015 – that are either ongoing or have yet to begin. 

Tony Mifsud studied politics and social affairs in Oxford.