Pro-abortion group’s study finds ingredient in morning-after pill can induce abortion

 

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 29, 2025 / 16:10 pm (CNA).

A study published last week found that the active ingredient used in a common morning-after “emergency contraceptive” can be used to induce a chemical abortion at least up to the ninth week of pregnancy.

The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Jan. 23, found that ulipristal acetate is an “effective” drug for causing an abortion. This drug is the active ingredient in the morning-after pill commonly marketed as “ella” or “ellaOne,” which is advertised as a non-abortive contraception used only to prevent pregnancy.

Researchers gave 133 pregnant women from Mexico City each a dosage of 60 milligrams of ulipristal acetate to induce an abortion. The women were then given misoprostol, which expels an unborn child from the mother by inducing contractions.

The study was conducted by Gynuity Health Projects and the National Autonomous University of Mexico and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Mexico City Health Secretariat.

Gynuity Health Projects — an organization that seeks to increase access to chemical abortions — has in the past been criticized by pro-life groups for conducting clinical trials on pregnant women around the world to test the effectiveness of second-trimester chemical abortions.

The organization has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and many other wealthy donors.

According to the recent study, the drug combination of ulipristal acetate and misoprostol completed an abortion in 129 cases — a success rate of 97%. This is about equal to the success rate of the abortion pill mifepristone — which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to abort an unborn child up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy in conjunction with misoprostol to expel the child.

The 60-milligram dose of ulipristal acetate used in the study is double the dose recommended for using the same drug as an “emergency contraceptive.” The study did not test whether lower doses could induce abortions.

Gynuity Health Projects President Beverly Winikoff, the lead researcher, told CNA she believes “this is the first study that shows the possibility of using [ulipristal acetate] for abortion” but that “just looking at the chemical structure, it has a structure very similar to mifepristone,” which is already used for abortion.

Aaron Kheriaty, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told CNA that a similar chemical structure does not necessarily mean both drugs will have the same effect but added that “it should have been investigated” in the FDA approval process.

Ulipristal acetate, he said, “makes the environment in the womb inhospitable to continue life.” He said whether someone takes it shortly after sexual intercourse or several weeks later, “it is doing the same thing” and in the cases documented in the study, “causing an abortion rather than preventing the conception of a human being in the first place.”

Kheriaty noted that even if taken soon after sexual intercourse, the drug can prevent a fertilized egg, which is already “a new human being,” from attaching to the uterus, ensuring the “early embryo can’t survive.”

“It’s long been known that the mechanism of action of the morning-after pill … is to produce an early abortion,” Kheriaty said.

Joseph Meaney, a senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), told CNA that the study indicates that ella “can be abortifacient in its mode of action.”

“Ulipristal acetate clearly works as an abortion pill,” Meaney said. “The question is how often does it abort very early pregnancies when used as so-called ‘emergency contraception?’”

The Vatican and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have warned for years that emergency contraceptives could induce abortions in early pregnancies, which pharmaceutical companies have consistently denied.

Ella still marketed as a non-abortive drug

Pharmaceutical companies market ella or ellaOne as a non-abortive drug that only prevents a pregnancy and will not end an existing pregnancy or harm a child in the mother’s womb. It is prescribed for women up to five days after sexual intercourse.

Ellarx.com, operated by HRA Pharma America — a subsidiary of the Perrigo Company plc — claims ella is not an “abortion pill,” adding: “It won’t end an existing pregnancy.”

“Emergency contraceptives like ella [work] by delaying or preventing ovulation, which stops pregnancy from occurring in the first place,” the website states in its section for frequently asked questions.

Similarly, ellaOne.co.uk lists among its morning-after pill “myths” that “the morning-after pill is a form of abortion” and adds “if the morning-after pill is taken by someone who is already pregnant, emergency contraception will not interrupt this pregnancy.” This website is also operated by Perrigo.

Perrigo issued a statement to the New York Times standing by that position, saying the study gave women a higher dose of ulipristal acetate than what is in one pill of ella, asserting “there continues to be no evidence to show that, on its own, ella causes an abortion.” One ella pill has 30 milligrams of ulipristal acetate, which is half of what the study used.

“Ella is an FDA-approved emergency contraception pill that acts before pregnancy can occur,” the statement added.

Winikoff, however, told CNA: “The study we published could make it possible for people to use [ulipristal acetate] for abortions,” adding that “the drug is FDA approved, and this is just another use for it.”

Kheriaty told CNA he believes the findings “place the medication in the same category as other drugs used for chemical abortions like mifepristone.” He said advertising it as a non-abortive drug is “clearly misleading, and it’s something the FDA should investigate.”

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, an NCBC senior ethicist, told CNA the study “reveals that [ulipristal acetate] can also be used in higher doses for the first step of a chemical abortion, again reminding us how closely connected contraception and abortion really are — ‘two fruits of the same tree,’” quoting St. John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae.

“In broad terms, we can see how contraceptive acts enable a couple to ‘quench the possibility’ of a family by doing away with the prospect of a child even before that life is conceived,” Pacholczyk added.

“The logic behind ‘quenching our offspring’ can now be extended further, as the active ingredient in ella will now likely become part of the regimen for initiating many early chemical abortions around the globe and directly ending countless unborn lives,” he said.