Doctors Gave Her Mifepristone For A Miscarriage. It Almost Killed Her

The deadly effects of the abortion drug mifepristone have been at the center of pro-lifers’ critiques of Trump FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who resigned this week. But my family has been painfully aware of the drug’s dangers ever since it almost killed someone I love. She didn’t even take it for an abortion.

“Lynn,” a close family member, discovered in January 2025 that she and her husband were expecting a baby. Their joy was soon dashed when Lynn realized she was having a miscarriage. She went to the emergency room, where medical staff told her she had not passed the baby, and suggested she take mifepristone instead of a dilation and curettage (D&C) to “complete” the miscarriage. That advice almost took her life.

After taking mifepristone, she hemorrhaged so severely her family called 911 for an ambulance. She was bleeding through her clothes, unable to stand, and in an altered mental state. Emergency room staff told her that “it’s just a miscarriage” and sent her home. Back in the ER six hours later with continued hemorrhaging and altered status, she was given two units of blood and released, again.

On her third hospital trip — 12 hours after the transfusion and four days after taking the pill — she was still bleeding profusely and critically ill. Her mom asked a nurse, “How many cases do you get like Lynn’s?” The nurse replied she didn’t know because these events were coded as miscarriage, but it happened “a lot.” When pressed that it was the mifepristone causing Lynn’s hemorrhage, the nurse shrugged and said this incident would also be charted as a miscarriage.

Why? Obama- and Biden-era regulations hide adverse effects of the mifepristone from the public. In other words, abortion politics. Not including “self-managed” chemical abortions, roughly 65 percent of abortions are now from the pill rather than a medical procedure. Some women claim it is an “easier” option after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Easy, but how safe?

Pro-life advocates oppose mifepristone as another form of abortion, as they should. But critics also object to it being delivered by mail to patients who may not read instructions or consult a clinician, and end up bleeding on the bathroom floor like Lynn.

While still being widely provided, there are two regulatory changes that President Donald J. Trump’s FDA must address to protect women and girls using mifepristone. One, adverse effects should be documented as adverse effects, and not “miscarriage.” Secondly, it should only be administered and monitored by medical personnel.

In 2016, during Barack Obama’s presidency, the FDA Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) required administration by certified health care providers but only required manufacturers to notify the FDA in case of a death. Massive hemorrhages need not apply.

Biden-era REMS updates added paperwork, but no safeguards. It asks patients to voluntarily report complications to their provider (the United States Post Office?) with no requirements to report adverse effects to the FDA. It also holds that adverse events can be “reclassified,” meaning a severe reaction to mifepristone — whether for abortion or in lieu of traditional D&C for miscarriage — can be categorized as a miscarriage.

How many women and girls have suffered severe complications? No one knows.

The secrecy is so profound it led the nonprofit organization Advancing American Freedom to file a Freedom of Information lawsuit against FDA demanding its release of all related communications and information on mifepristone. A detailed analysis of abortion pill-related claims last year by the Ethics and Public Policy Center revealed that an appalling one in 10 women experiences adverse effects from the abortion pill. That is an unacceptable government-sanctioned health risk. Why hasn’t the FDA completed its review of this data?

Early in his tenure Makary noted he had “no plans to take action” on the abortion pill. Well, if it wasn’t his job, whose was it? It took Lynn nearly a year to physically recover. She was off work for months and had several secondary health problems, particularly with her kidneys and liver, and normalizing her hemoglobin.

Emotionally, she was devastated and grieving. She told me, “I was so sick and so out of it for so long it took a while before I remembered to grieve for my baby. When it hit, it hit hard. No matter what a woman’s choice” — Lynn supports abortion — “women should only take mifepristone under medical supervision and the awful complications should be reported and not classified as miscarriages.”

As acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas steps into his temporary role, FDA leadership retains an obligation to address regulatory deficiencies surrounding mifepristone so women can make informed decisions before taking a drug whose dangers are deliberately buried in public health bureaucracy.