Birth control is touted as one of the greatest medical advancements ever made for women, allowing them to take charge of their sexuality without worrying about unplanned pregnancies — or so the narrative goes, anyway. But birth control has risks that go along with it, and those who use it should weigh those risks before taking it. Unfortunately, many women aren’t properly informed of the risks beforehand. For certain kinds of birth control, those risks include an increased susceptibility to getting a sexually transmitted disease (STD).

Published percentages for ER visits on mifepristone’s 2023 label indicate that 2.9 to 4.6% of women who take it end up in the emergency room, indicating that abortion pill ER visits could be in the tens of thousands every year. In addition, the FDA’s medication guide acknowledges that as many as seven percent (7%) of women will need surgery after taking mifepristone “to stop bleeding” or to complete the abortion… These percentages, against Guttmacher Institute’s updated 648,500 annual abortion pill data from 2023, reveal that each year, 39,000 to 45,400 women may need additional surgery, and 19,400 to over 32,000 women may report to an emergency department after taking abortion-inducing drugs.

“In fact, between 6 and 10 weeks’ gestation, the embryo grows into a fetus, from the size of a baked bean to the size of a prune. In many cases, they are, in fact, visible to the naked eye. Many women who have experienced a miscarriage or medication abortion can attest to this,” she said.