‘How Safe Is Medication Abortion & How Effective Is It?’: Tina Smith Asks Doctor Point Blank

3 months ago

During a Senate Health Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) questioned witnesses about medication abortion, misinformation around abortion care and telemedicine.

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Transcript

00:00Senator Smith.

00:01Thank you so much.

00:02Welcome, everybody.

00:03I'm appreciating very much all of you being here.

00:07I want to just follow up a little bit on the question about medication abortion.

00:11So Mifepristone has been lawfully prescribed to patients since 2000.

00:17I'll just ask Dr. Verma, how safe is medication abortion and how effective is it?

00:24Thank you for that question.

00:25Medication abortion is incredibly safe and effective.

00:28In a recent study of 20,000 patients that have undergone medication abortion, the rate

00:33of adverse events was 0.38%.

00:37So very, very low.

00:39Only about 1% of those patients came to the emergency room after the process.

00:44And of those people, about 40% didn't need any treatment.

00:48So we know that medication abortion is incredibly safe and effective.

00:52And I also want to highlight how dangerous misinformation about the practice of medicine

00:57is for our patients, for physicians.

01:00The American Board of OB-GYNs, which is the board that certifies all of us OB-GYNs at

01:06this table, has asserted that abortion care is safe, is effective, that medication abortion

01:12is safe, that abortion reversal is not something that we can, in good faith, offer to our patients

01:19because it can cause serious risks of bleeding and hemorrhage, and that abortion care does

01:24not cause preterm birth.

01:26And so I just want to highlight some of that misinformation that we've heard today because

01:30it can be very dangerous and contradicts what the American Board of OB-GYNs and American

01:35College of OB-GYNs asserts.

01:38We've heard a few things also today about abortion reversal drugs and saline abortions.

01:44Is there any misinformation that you'd like to clear up there as well?

01:48Yeah, thank you for that question.

01:50Saline abortions is not something that is done in the practice of modern medicine.

01:53I have been practicing for about a decade, have never seen or heard it.

01:57So that is not a practice that is done.

02:00For abortion reversal, my colleagues and I actually studied whether this is a treatment

02:05that we could offer to our patients because if it was a safe treatment and a patient wanted

02:10it, I'd be happy to offer it.

02:12I am happy to support my patients who want to continue a pregnancy, end a pregnancy,

02:16whatever is right for them.

02:19And we found we had to stop that study early because people were experiencing significant

02:23bleeding and were at risk.

02:25And so it is not a safe treatment that is available to patients.

02:30That is misinformation.

02:32Thank you.

02:33And maybe I'll ask Dr. Linton this.

02:34There's been, I'd like to ask you about this question about whether telemedicine for medication

02:42abortion is also safe and effective.

02:45So thank you for that.

02:47I would reiterate what Dr. Verma said.

02:48When we are thinking about providing medication abortion via telemedicine, we have screening

02:53questions.

02:54And if there are any red flags, if someone does not have a regular menstrual cycle, if

02:59somebody is concerned about bleeding or cramping, then they are not eligible for a medication

03:04abortion via telemedicine.

03:06Of course, our utmost priority in every single patient encounter is patient safety.

03:11Thank you.

03:12Ms. Lopez, thank you so much for being here.

03:14As you all know, Louisiana recently enacted a law that adds mifepristone and mifepristol,

03:21which is another drug used to manage abortion, to the state's controlled substances list.

03:27This law would criminalize anyone who possesses the drug without a valid prescription, and

03:31it puts it on a category that is in the same category as opioids.

03:36I'm just wondering, is there any reason, I mean, what would be the, what do you make

03:41of that?

03:42Do you believe that medication abortion should be put in the same classification as the other

03:45dangerous controlled substances?

03:47The easy answer is no, and I think my colleagues have really reiterated how safe and effective

03:53medication abortion is.

03:54We have two decades of widespread use of study of this drug, so we know that it is safe and

03:58effective both here and globally.

04:00It has also become an incredibly important option for folks to access abortion care.

04:05Two-thirds of abortions are now via medication abortion.

04:09And so any effort to restrict it further is simply an effort to make abortion more difficult

04:15to obtain.

04:16And what impact does that have on women, for example, living in rural communities, people

04:19who struggle already to get access to care, including women who are marginalized in so

04:26many other ways and don't get access to care?

04:28Yeah, the folks who are most impacted by all of these abortion restrictions are folks who

04:31are already marginalized by our healthcare system.

04:33So folks of color, the un- or underinsured, young folks, LGBTQ folks, and folks who, as

04:39you said, Senator, live in rural communities.

04:41And so it makes it harder to get.

04:43We know now that one in five abortion seekers is traveling out of state to get care.

04:48So it means they're leaving their home communities at significant financial, logistical, and

04:52emotional costs to themselves and their families.

04:54Thank you.

04:55Thank you.

04:56Chair Murray.

‘How Safe Is Medication Abortion & How Effective Is It?’: Tina Smith Asks Doctor Point Blank

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