COLUMBUS: Ohio’s restrictions on the so-called abortion pill led to a higher rate of side effects, more doctor visits and additional medical treatment for patients, according to a new study.
The requirements took effect in 2011. Once implemented, Ohio’s law initially required physicians administering mifepristone to follow outdated protocols for the abortion drug, originally known as RU-486.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s guidelines at the time contained a higher, more expensive dosage of the drug. It’s prescribed along with a second drug, misoprostol.
The FDA revised its protocol in March, allowing Ohio providers to update their practice. Supporters of the Ohio law had argued it would help protect women’s health by mandating a federally approved protocol. But the study, led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, suggests the opposite.
“There is no evidence that the change in law led to improved abortion outcomes,” according to the results published last week in the journal PLOS Medicine.
The study compared years before and after Ohio’s law was in place. Researchers analyzed chart data from 2,783 women who obtained a medical abortion from four Ohio clinics between 2010 and 2014.
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. The rate of women reporting at least one side effect also increased to 15.6 percent from 8.4 percent.
Medical abortions at the clinics involved in the study dropped after the law — from 22 percent of all abortions in 2010, to 5 percent in 2014.