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Use in Miscarriage Care
Mifepristone, in combination with misoprostol, offers the most effective medication regimen for managing
an early miscarriage. A 2018 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that adding
mifepristone to the medication misoprostol was more effective for the management of early miscarriage than
taking misoprostol alone and reduced the likelihood of patients needing an additional procedure.
Claims of “Abortion Reversal”
There is no medical evidence to support the assertion that a medication abortion can be “reversed” if
someone is given a high dose of progesterone after taking mifepristone. This claim is primarily led by
Dr. George Delgado, an acknowledged anti-abortion activist. In recent years, his unproven concept
of “abortion reversal” has been introduced into legislatures across the country by those opposed to
legal abortion. In 2015, Arizona was the rst state to pass a law requiring providers to tell their patients
that their medication abortions could be “reversed.” A number of other states have since followed suit,
despite the lack of evidence.
Planned Parenthood continually reviews available research and medical evidence to inform our Medical
Standards & Guidelines and patient education materials. The treatment that Delgado has proposed,
as well as the legislative efforts requiring health care providers to inform people seeking abortion of
that treatment, are not evidence-based. Experts such as the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists reject these claims, as they have not been proven in reliable medical studies. In 2019,
astudy testing the claim of “abortion reversal” was halted early due to patient safety concerns.
Medically Unnecessary Restrictions on Mifepristone
Currently in the United States, patients cannot access mifepristone through a pharmacy. It remains out-of-
reach for many people across the country, particularly those living in remote or rural areas, due to the FDA’s
Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) restrictions. The REMS restrictions on mifepristone are
not supported by research and create medically unnecessary barriers for patients accessing both
medication abortion and the best method of managing a miscarriage.
• REMS restrictions on mifepristone require that patients must be given the medication at a doctor’s ofce,
hospital, or health center from a health care provider who has pre-registered with the drug manufacturer
and arranged to stock the medication at their facility (or is under the supervision of another health care
provider who has).
• These unnecessary restrictions limit the number of health care providers who prescribe mifepristone
and severely limit patients’ access to this option, since patients aren’t able to ll a prescription for the
medication at a pharmacy, as they could with any other equally safe medication.