(CNSNews.com) -- At the 50th Annual March for Life on Jan. 20, Dr. Ingrid Skop, a Texas OB/GYN who has delivered more than 5,000 babies, shared her knowledge about the dangers of chemical abortion drugs (mifepristone). Skop told CNSNews that the FDA’s decision to allow abortion pills to be sold in retail pharmacies is “clearly politically driven,” and that “the FDA is basing their decisions on studies that undercount complications.”
“It is clearly politically driven because every time the FDA has loosened restrictions on Mifepristone it’s been in a Democrat administration,” said Dr. Skop. “But the other thing that’s happening, the abortion industry publishes studies to promote their product.”
“They will usually say it’s 99 or 98 percent effective, but they are doing that based on flawed data,” said the doctor. “Because, again, they are only talking about the women they know of that had a complication. But if the women do not come back to them, if they come to me (or other OBGYNs) nobody knows about those complications. So, the FDA is basing their decisions on studies that undercount complications.”
Dr. Skop has been a practicing OB/GYN for 30 years and is currently a Senior Fellow and Director of Medical Affairs for the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Additionally, she serves as the medical director of Any Woman Can and The Source. Her research on abortion has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals, and she has provided expert testimony on legislation related to abortion at the state and federal levels.
CNSNews asked Dr. Skop about what exactly a chemical abortion does to the body. She explained, “The chemical abortion regiment is two drugs. Mifepristone is the first, and it blocks progesterone. It cuts off the hormonal support for the embryo/fetus and causes him to die. The second component, Misoprostol, is usually given 24-48 hours later and it induces contractions, so essentially it causes labor to express the pregnancy tissue.”
She also discussed some of the complications that may occur with the use of the abortion pill. “Good studies tell us that probably one out of 20 women is not able to express all the tissue, so she has dead tissue still in her uterus,” she said. “She may hemorrhage. There’s a very unusual form of infection that can occur. So these women who have these failed abortions are going to need follow up and they usually will need surgery and an aspiration procedure to remove the tissue.”
These women that need surgery rarely go back to the abortionist, so they find themselves in emergency rooms or in front of OB/GYN’s. Skop said this is why abortion statistics are predominantly incorrect.
“They generally do not go back to the abortionist,” she said. “They are surprised, they do not expect a complication. So they come to the emergency room or … they come to my office. There they are cared for. But in the meantime there is no way to link those statistics to be able to prove how often this is happening because women are usually ashamed and they don’t want to talk about it.”
Mifepristone is supposed to be taken before the 11th week of pregnancy or serious side effects can occur. CNSNews asked Dr. Skop what the risks and dangers are if the pill is taken after the 11th week and she said, “As you can imagine, the more tissue [fetus] in there the harder it is going to be to get it all out. You just see this exponential rise in failures.”
“With the way the FDA is now allowing it [abortion pill] to be distributed without a doctor ever laying hands on the woman, looking her in the eye, we are relying on the women to give us their gestational age and, of course, they may be wrong,” said Skop. “The further along, the more likely to fail.”
Skop also discussed the dangers that can occur from a doctor not being able to rule out an ectopic pregnancy, if a woman takes the abortion pill. This kind of pregnancy takes place outside the uterus, usually in the fallopian tubes. If a woman takes Mifepristone during an ectopic pregnancy it “does not work in that situation, it works only in the uterus,” said Skop. “So that pregnancy can continue to grow. It can rupture. It can lead to catastrophic internal bleeding, and women have died.”
Skop also explained the dangers that can come with a woman that has an Rh negative blood type. In this situation, the woman must take a shot called RhoGAM to prevent future complications. With the new FDA policy, said Skop, “they are not doing ultrasounds, they are not doing exams, they are not doing labs. Nobody is looking to see if a woman has an Rh negative blood type -- and it’s always been the standard of care to give a shot called RhoGAM to prevent future complications. But that opportunity is being lost because these pills are going to women without any medical supervision.”
According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, medication abortions account for 53% of all abortions in the United States.
“In April 2021, the FDA announced it would allow abortion pills to be mailed to patients for the duration of the [COVID] pandemic,” said Guttmacher. “This action meant patients could obtain an abortion without making one (or several) in-person visits to a health care facility and risking unnecessary exposure to COVID-19. The change also allowed online-only abortion providers to mail pills to patients in more states.”
To read more about Dr. Skop and her research, click here.