Since 2020, over 54,000 women have been hospitalized from abortion pill complications within the U.K., a recent report found.
In 2020, the U.K. introduced the “pills-by-post” legislation, which allowed women to receive prescription abortion drugs by mail after a telephone consultation. Since its introduction, hospitalizations from abortion complications have increased yearly.
The report analyzes the official numbers published by the National Health Service (NHS) England and the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities. Between 2020 and 2021, 8,618 women had hospital treatments from abortion complications. The numbers increased by over a thousand each year, except for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 periods, which remained relatively steady in the 12,000 range. On average, nearly 11,000 women were hospitalized yearly from such complications.
Kevin Duffy, the former director of pro-abortion organization MSI Reproductive Choices, conducted the analysis on the NHS report. Duffy, who abandoned the pro-abortion agenda and became a pro-life researcher, has repeatedly spoken on the dangers of the abortion pill.
“From about 2015-2016, MSI began to emphasize a strategic push towards self-managed medical abortion, supplying abortion drugs through pharmacies,” Duffy said. “I was never a supporter of this, preferring instead for women to receive, what I considered at the time, comprehensive care in-clinic. Across the abortion sector, there were and are many reports raising concerns that increasing numbers of women are presenting with incomplete abortions at facilities after self-administering abortion pills which they had bought in the local drug shops.”
For those who have a self-managed abortion at their home, 1-in-17 are admitted to a hospital for treatment due to a complication or incomplete medical abortion.
The research further adds to recent dialogue centered on U.S. legislative changes that opened the door to easier abortion pill access in the U.S.
GOP senators rallied against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of a generic version of abortion drug mifepristone last month. Under the approval, three more American companies can produce a generic form of mifepristone.
The 51 senators sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary.
“Under current FDA regulations, these drugs can be obtained via mail order without meaningful consultation with a medical professional and without any confirmation of who is purchasing them or for what purpose,” the letter states. “These policies have enabled abortion pills to be obtained by abusers, traffickers, and even minors.”
Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, says she is grateful for the senators’ action.
“Republican senators have recognized that mifepristone poses a huge threat to women,” Szoch said. “I applaud their call to suspend the distribution of this dangerous drug and all of its generic forms. Mifepristone causes serious complications in more than one in 10 women. … It takes a life and leaves women alone to deal with the excruciating physical and mental pain of abortion.”
The state of Louisiana also recently filed suit against the FDA due to a Biden-administration move that took away a federal requirement that abortion drugs be dispensed in person. The state contends that mifepristone is dangerous to women’s health, and that out-of-state suppliers are shipping drugs to Louisiana citizens, in violation of state law.
