Study says Ohio's restrictive laws on abortion pill has no safety benefits

21 September 2016

The 2011 Ohio abortion restriction law, which supporters touted as a measure for women’s safety had none to worse effect on their health, says a new study. After implementation, the law primarily required physicians carrying out medical pregnancy termination to follow outdated protocols, for administering drug initially known as RU-486.

Already cleared by Conservative Republican controlled legislature in 2004, legal requirements kept it delayed in taking effect until 2011. The state representative pushing for the law feared easy access to the miscarriage inducing medicines and likened it to giving out candies.

In Texas, restrictive law on pregnancy ending resulted in 1 lac to 2.40 lac women attempting in self induced miscarriages in past years. The law attempting to dissuade ceasing conception has unintended consequences however, which didn’t include decline of pregnancy termination rate, but rather an increase was noticed on women who buy abortion pill online for unwanted pregnancies.

FDA Protocol for Abortion Pill: Old and New

The Food and Drug administration rules at the time required a much higher as well as costly dosage of mifepristone along with secondary drug, misoprostol. The FDA however had revised its policy in March 2016, permitting Ohio pregnancy ending providers to update their practice.

The study researched the impact of requirements needed for providers that followed the FDA protocol and scrutinized data gained from 2,783 women who went through said law of Ohio, after it was passed in 2011 till 2014. Researchers analyzed chart data from 2,783 women who obtained a medication pregnancy termination from Ohio clinics between 2010 and 2014.

According to study, the percentage of women going through the process significantly decreased from 22% to 5%. After the law was passed, the percentage of women who required additional medical help to end their incomplete termination also increased from 4.9% to 14.3 %.

Law Worsened Effects on Women’s Health

The laws resulted in more clinic visits and more side effects, therefore resulting higher cost for women seeking pregnancy termination facilities. Women using abortion pill pack were denied easy access and therefore more likely to trust illegal means of getting un-certified medicines.

These restrictions made access to the medicines burdensome, not that the procedure these rendered became dangerous after it was passed. Additional treatments dissuade the financially weak and therefore more complication arises, explained the lead author of the study.

Many professionals point out against the Ohio law, as ending pregnancy with drugs is a safe procedure, boasting of 97% of success rate. Women can purchase abortion pill online and carry out an early pregnancy termination safely with the prescribed mifepristone and misoprostol. Denying access to mifepristone will only complicate the matters.

Pregnancy Termination Early is Safe

Many pro-choice communities have come together to question the reason for passing the 2011 law citing it as a thinly veiled attempt at denying easy access to the needed medications. Objectively, pregnancy termination especially one done early with medications is one of the safest methods.

It is a known that carrying out pregnancy to the whole term is 14 times more likely to cause complication than ending the same. Which is in itself say something as childbirth has become significantly safer since the 21st century.