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August 16, 2007
Medical abortions are safe
A new study done in Denmark showed that abortion pills (aka medical abortion) pose no risk to a woman who decides to have a child later in life.
The study in the New England Journal of Medicine found no difference in the rates of subsequent tubal pregnancies, miscarriages, premature births or low birthweight births for women who had previously had surgical abortion, usually through vacuum aspiration, or those taking any of the three drug regimens that eliminate a fetus.About 2.4 percent of later conceptions led to tubal pregnancy and just over 12 percent miscarried, regardless of the type of earlier abortion, the researchers found.
The likelihood of having a premature birth (5.4 percent) or a low birthweight baby (4 percent) was slightly lower among the women who had received the abortion pill but the difference was not statistically significant.
Dr. Jun Zhang of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, who worked on the study, said "The short-term safety of medical abortion has been well established."
Previous studies have established the safety of surgical abortion in the first trimester.
Posted by Jessica at August 16, 2007 9:09 AM