Study: Abortion pills don't raise risk in later pregnancies

ATLANTA -- Women who use abortion pills rather than the more common surgical method seem to face no greater risk of tubal pregnancy or miscarriage in later pregnancies, according to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The federally funded research -- based on nearly 12,000 Danish women -- is considered the best study to date of the impact of this newer abortion method on subsequent pregnancies. The vast majority of abortions are called surgical abortions, usually done by vacuuming an embryo or fetus out with a syringe or electric pump.

The researchers studied medical abortions, which involve a woman ending a pregnancy by taking one tablet of mifespristone, formerly known as RU-486, followed by about four misoprostol pills a day or two later.

Medical abortions appeal to women because they can do it in the privacy of their home, can seem less intimidating than surgical abortion, and can be prescribed by just about any doctor, specialists said.

The US government approved the marketing of mifespristone for medical abortions in 2000, and European countries approved it years earlier. Today, an estimated 8 percent to 10 percent of the roughly 1.3 million abortions in the United States are done using the pills. Previous research has shown surgical abortions don't increase the risk of problems in later pregnancies, but little research had been done on the impact of medical abortions.