Turns out forcing women to take unnecessary extra doses of medication isn’t the best idea. According to a new study, Ohio women experienced more abortion complications after state legislators passed a 2011 law that strictly regulated the use of mifepristone, known as the “abortion pill.”
As reported by ABC News, the law forced Ohio doctors to follow outdated FDA prescription procedures, even though medical literature warned against doing just that. To comply with the law, doctors had to require patients to take an extra dose of mifepristone. The result? Sick women. A lot of them.
From ABC:
They found that after the law, there was an increase in the percentage of patients who required additional medical treatment to complete their abortions. Medical interventions rose to 14.3 percent compared to 4.9 percent before law. Such treatment included repeat dosages of the drugs, blood transfusions and surgery.
Those are serious complications! But Ohio Republicans got what they wanted. Medical abortions dropped significantly, from 22 percent to 5 percent of all abortions in the state. Of course, the same legislators insisted at the time that this bill was intended to protect women’s health. It’s the same rationale they deployed in defense of the Heartbeat Bill, a draconian abortion restriction they tried and failed to pass the same year—and both bills were supported by Ohio Governor John Kasich.
It’s clear now that this “pro-life” bill was never about women, and it was never about medical evidence. It was about forcing women to stay pregnant, consequences be damned.