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As the legislative session progresses, we now have drafted bill language for four of the anti-abortion bills, including so-called abortion reversal (LD 825 & LD 851). Since this is the first time the legislature will address this issue, I wanted to provide some background on medication abortion, so-called abortion reversal, and how bills like these contribute to the misinformation, confusion, and stigma about abortion, abortion patients, and abortion providers. 

 

Medication Abortion

 

So-called abortion “reversal”

  • Opponents of safe, legal abortion argue that if patients do not take the second medicine prescribed for a medication abortion and take a large dose of the hormone progesterone, the abortion can be “reversed.”

  • There isn’t a shred of evidence -- no clinical trials, no objective or credible data -- to support so-called medication abortion “reversal.”  

    • The truth is, medication abortion “reversal” endangers people’s health. A study launched in early 2019 to test the protocol had to be halted early due to patient safety concerns. (25% of participants had to be taken by ambulance to a hospital for treatment for severe bleeding) 

    • The researchers concluded that patients in early pregnancy who use only mifepristone without misoprostol may be at risk of significant hemorrhage.

  • Medical experts oppose so-called abortion “reversal”

 

Abortion misinformation

 

All patients need medically accurate information to make decisions that are right for them. Forcing providers to give patients misleading or inaccurate information undermines informed consent and interferes with the trusting relationship between a provider and patient.

In fact, last month a Federal District Court blocked a similar law in Tennessee noting that the law likely violates the First Amendment by compelling speech that is “untruthful and/or misleading.”

Patients should be treated with dignity and respect and given medically accurate information -- not stigmatizing, unproven claims based on misinformation.

Neither of the bills in Maine have yet been scheduled for a public hearing.

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