There has been a flurry of six mifepristone and APR-related studies published in the last three months. In case you missed it, this post provides a summary and citation for each report. You can find citations for additional APR, mifepristone and progesterone studies here https://aprscience.org/studies/.
The Origins and Proliferation of Unfounded Comparisons Regarding the Safety of Mifepristone
May 24, 2025. A report published in the journal BioTech, investigates the origins and subsequent expansion of the comparative claims drawn between mifepristone and other common drugs, assessing the evidence offered on their behalf and comparing them to established best practices for the communication of drug safety. The manifest deficiencies identified by this examination provide case studies in the importance of such scrutiny and may dissuade the continued deployment of these misleading and dangerous claims in the medical, legal, regulatory, and public realms.
Louttit, Cameron. 2025. The Origins and Proliferation of Unfounded Comparisons Regarding the Safety of Mifepristone. BioTech 14 (2): 39. https://doi.org/10.3390/biotech14020039.
Determining the Period Prevalence and Acuity of Emergency Department Visits Following Induced Abortion Mistakenly Identified as Spontaneous Abortion: An Analytic Observational Prospective Cohort Study
May 23, 2025. A report in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care concludes that coincident with the increasing dominance of medical abortion, there is a concurrent increase in the misattribution of post-induced abortion ED visits to a spontaneous abortion. High levels of visit acuity suggest that these miscodes represent a serious risk factor. Further, these miscodes mask and statistically deflate post-abortion complication rates and undermine both the science and medical management necessary to address these issues, representing a threat to effective surveillance.
James Studnicki, et al. 2025. Determining the Period Prevalence and Acuity of Emergency Department Visits Following Induced Abortion Mistakenly Identified as Spontaneous Abortion: An Analytic Observational Prospective Cohort Study. Family Medicine and Primary Care: Open Access 9 (1). https://doi.org/10.29011/2688-7460.100282.
Depomedroxyprogesterone Acetate Impact on Mifepristone Action during Medication Abortion
May 14, 2025. A report in the European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care concludes that DMPA may reverse the effects of mifepristone when used for medication abortions. The purpose of the report was to evaluate outcomes in patients who did and did not receive DMPA concurrently with mifepristone for mifepristone-misoprostol abortion and estimate the impact of DMPA on mifepristone action. The report concluded that ongoing pregnancy as the reason for medication abortion failure occurs more frequently with advancing gestation in patients that do and do not receive DMPA concurrently with mifepristone. They also concluded that DMPA may impact mifepristone variably by gestational duration, but larger studies are needed. Learn more here: https://aprscience.org/news/study-concludes-dmpa-may-reverse-mifepristone/.
Creinin, Mitchell D., and Christy M. Boraas. 2025. Depomedroxyprogesterone Acetate Impact on Mifepristone Action during Medication Abortion. The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care, May, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/13625187.2025.2495601.
The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals Repeated Abortion Attempts Due to High Failure Rate
May 12, 2025. A report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center concludes that the real-world failure rate of mifepristone abortion—at least 5.26 percent, or about one in 19 cases—is double the failure rate from the U.S. clinical trials and roughly two-thirds higher than the combined failure rate from all clinical trials reported on the FDA-approved drug label. This largest-known study of the abortion pill is based on analysis of data from an all-payer insurance claims database that includes 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions from 2017 to 2023.
Hall, Jamie B., Ryan T. Anderson. 2025. The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals Repeated Abortion Attempts Due to High Failure Rate. https://eppc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/25-05-SHW-Insurance-Data-Reveals-Repeated-Abortion-Attempts-Due-to-High-Failure-Rate.pdf.
The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event
April 28, 2025. A report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center performed the largest-known study of the abortion pill based on analysis of data from an all-payer insurance claims database that includes 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions from 2017 to 2023. 10.93 percent of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following a mifepristone abortion. The real-world rate of serious adverse events following mifepristone abortions is at least 22 times as high as the summary figure of “less than 0.5 percent” in clinical trials reported on the drug label.
Hall, Jamie B., Ryan T. Anderson. 2025. The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event. https://eppc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25-04-The-Abortion-Pill-Harms-Women.pdf.
Progesterone Supplementation after Postovulatory Mifepristone Reduce Changes in Human Endometrial Gene Expression
March 19, 2025. A report published in the journal Reproduction found that “progesterone supplementation reverses 83% of transcript changes in the secretory endometrium induced by postovulatory mifepristone, potentially mitigating its antiprogestogenic effects.” This research further supports the potential effectiveness of supplemental progesterone in reversing the effects of mifepristone when used for medication abortions. Learn more here: https://aprscience.org/news/progesterone-after-mifepristone-reduces-changes-in-endometrial-gene-expression/.
Tapia-Pizarro, Alejandro, Nicolás Santander, Abril Salinas, Andrea Torres, Denise Vega, Miguel del Rio, and Pilar Vigil. 2025. Progesterone Supplementation after Postovulatory Mifepristone Reduce Changes in Human Endometrial Gene Expression. Reproduction 169 (4). https://doi.org/10.1530/REP-24-0372.