Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to speak about abortion Friday in Georgia, where two women’s deaths have been tied to a state law that mostly bans the procedure after roughly six weeks. Amber Thurman died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat complications that occurred after she took abortion pills. earlier this week, the case is the first publicly reported instance of a woman dying from delayed care tied to a state abortion law.
The news organization also reported on the , a woman with lupus, diabetes and hypertension who took abortion pills she ordered online. An autopsy found fetal tissue that hadn’t been expelled and a lethal combination of painkillers, ProPublica reported. The state’s maternal mortality review committee did not believe abortion medication caused her death.
Still, the fact both women used the pills — mifepristone and misoprostol — may raise questions about whether they are safe. Here are some facts. What safety limits have been imposed? The U.
S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone in 2000 as a safe and effective way to . The drug, which blocks the hormone progesterone, also primes the uterus to respond to the contraction-causing effect of another drug typically used along with it, misoprostol.
The pills are used in abortions nationally. There are rare occasions when mifepristone can cause excessive bleeding that requires emergency care. Because of that, the FDA initially imposed strict safety limits on who could.
