An ominous expansion of medication abortion

After years of arguing that emergency contraceptives aren’t abortifacients, the abortion industry has suddenly changed its story. A new study now shows that Ella, a prescription medication used to prevent pregnancies if taken five days after unprotected sex, can be effective when the dose is doubled and combined with misoprostol as part of a two-drug regimen to induce medical abortions.

A recent report by The New York Times highlighted the study’s findings that the main ingredient in Ella, ulipristal acetate, was remarkably effective when used to induce medical abortions on 133 women at up to nine weeks of gestation. This drug could theoretically replace mifepristone when combined with misoprostol as a standard abortion pill regimen, as the effective rates are similar.

The study’s lead author told the Times that she became interested in applying the mechanisms found in ulipristal acetate to inducing abortions only after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, wanting to consider an option “already on the market.” Yet this statement is hardly believable—that a drug with “chemical properties similar to mifepristone” has only recently been considered a viable alternative to mifepristone seems highly implausible.

What’s more realistic is that emergency contraceptives like Ella have always been alternatives (but publicly unacknowledged) to mifepristone for inducing medication abortions. Abortion opponents have long argued that the abortifacient properties of these pharmaceuticals are well-known but have been systemically downplayed by the abortion industry.

The Times report admitted the political double-edged sword of introducing a drug like Ella for use in induced abortion. The reporter said this expansion of the drug’s use may only “stoke opposition” and “lead to crackdowns” on “emergency contraceptives.” Abortion advocates, like Daniel Grossman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, certainly are concerned “that the findings of this study could be misapplied and used by politicians to try to restrict ulipristal for emergency contraception.” The abortion industry wants to maintain that Ella is only effective as an abortifacient when the drug’s dose is doubled.

But it doesn’t follow that simply changing the dose of the drug fundamentally changes any underlying chemical mechanisms that cause abortions. Pro-life advocates should wonder why there hasn’t been a study on the efficacy of Ella at a lower dosage used to induce abortion. Would these findings threaten Ella’s approval and availability on the market, only currently approved for use as an “emergency contraceptive”?

A more plausible reality is that a smaller dose of Ella has been long efficient in aborting very early pregnancies when used alone and simply called “emergency contraception.”

These types of games aren’t new. Hormonal contraception and abortifacients are ethically and even scientifically inseparable. Drugs like Ella work the same way mifepristone does by binding to progesterone receptors as an interloper designed to confuse the body’s typical mechanisms and thwart both implantation and pregnancy continuation.

A drug’s inherent properties don’t change based on dosage.

While in the United States, pro-abortion advocates seem wary to base new clinical guidelines on this study, the Times reports no such hesitation in Europe, referencing a Dutch physician who’s ready to offer ulipristal acetate as the abortion pill regimen instead of mifepristone. Rebecca Gomperts, along with others, is reported to be “studying low doses of mifepristone as a weekly birth control pill.”

Those who value the sanctity of human life should expect nefarious and underhanded tactics to be used widely in the fight to widen access to abortion pills. Christians must think deeply before engaging with hormonal contraceptives of any kind. What you’ve been told regarding abortifacient properties may be outright fabrications. I don’t trust the information regarding the use of these pharmaceuticals, and neither should you.