A new study found strong biological and behavioral risks linked to the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol at a time when the abortion industry is pushing them on more and more women.
For years, pro-life advocates have warned women about major risks associated with the drugs, including the death of the mother as well as her unborn baby.
But the new, three-year study from Franciscan University provides more evidence of potentially harmful effects, including depression, anxiety, loss of appetite and decreased self-care, according to TownHall.
The study, published in the journal “Frontiers in Neuroscience” in May, examined the effects of the drugs on rats. Researchers compared the behavior of rats that were pregnant and took the drugs to rats that took the drugs and were not pregnant and rats that were pregnant but did not take the drugs.
“Our study clearly indicates that there are negative consequences to terminating a viable pregnancy using mifepristone and misoprostol,” Dr. Stephen Sammut told TownHall. “This was evident in the overall negative effects on the well-being of the animals administered the drugs to terminate pregnancy. These animals also displayed depression and anxiety-like behaviors.”
A neuroscientist and psychology professor, Sammut explained that rats commonly are used in these types of studies because of their similarities in physiology and neurophysiology to humans.
“This is breaking new ground,” Sammut said. “In the animal model, we observed depression-like behaviors, and we saw anxiety-like behaviors. The biochemistry indicated potentially long-term effects.”
The study also is significant because the researchers do not have ties to the abortion industry.
The potential for abortion-related consequences on mental health has been the source of considerable debate in the scientific literature for the past 20 years, with little clear resolution. Experts say the lack of consensus, however, may be tied to institutional bias against studies that might implicate the abortion industry—a charge that is especially frightening given that the abortion-inducing drugs have not been subjected to the same rigorous scientific inquiry applied by Sammut and his team.
SUPPORT LIFENEWS! If you like this pro-life article, please help LifeNews.com with a donation!
“Medical abortion researchers focused on how fast the drug could kill the baby and how much effort it would take on the part of the abortionists to handle complications,” said Donna Harrison, executive director of the American Association of Pro-life OB-GYNs. “This study (the first not performed by the abortion industry) raises serious concerns about mental health effects of drug-induced abortions and the differences between spontaneous and induced abortion. Such studies should have been performed long before drug-induced abortion was allowed on the market.”
Sammut said their research is not over; they plan to continue studying the effects of the drugs.
These disturbing findings come at a time when the abortion industry is increasingly pushing abortion drugs on women. In the past decade, state reports on abortion methods show a steady increase in the use of the drugs to abort unborn babies. A 2014 report from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute estimated that abortion drugs were used for 23 percent of all abortions—an increase from 17 percent in 2008.
Some groups now are selling the drugs illegally online, putting women in even more danger. In March, the FDA sent warning letters to two groups that were selling the drugs to American women over the internet. The agency told the groups to “immediately cease” because they were putting women at “significant health risks.”
Other studies have found that risks associated with the drugs include excessive bleeding, severe abdominal pain, infection, hemorrhage and death. The abortion drugs are responsible for the deaths of dozens of women worldwide, including at least 22 women in the United States, and have injured thousands more. A Planned Parenthood study even admitted at least one woman is seriously injured from the abortion pill daily.
