New Book Outlines Medication Abortion’s Origins—From ‘Chance’ Discovery to Decades of Clinical Tests and Global Approval |
The abortion drug mifepristone has transformed abortion care in the U.S. since its approval by the Food and Drug Administration 25 years ago.
When combined with misoprostol, a drug that was originally used to prevent stomach ulcers but that can also trigger uterine contractions, mifepristone makes medication abortions more effective, with fewer side effects. That, in turn, allows people to largely manage their care at home—even in states where abortion is illegal.
Its surge in popularity following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and gutted federal abortion rights, has made it a target of anti-abortion groups. The FDA is planning to “review” mifepristone based on those groups’ trumped-up claim of safety concerns, which could potentially lead to new restrictions on the drug.
Journalist Rebecca Kelliher’s recent book, Just Pills, traces the history of abortion medications, starting with misoprostol’s whispered origins among Brazilian women in the 1980s as a “pill that makes your period back” through decades of clinical trials and widespread use in almost 100 countries.
Rewire News Group spoke with Kelliher about abortion politics, the disinformation that swirls around reproductive rights, and inspiration from abroad.
The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
The development of the abortion pill, as you tell it, includes quite a bit of chance: Brazilian women realize that a cheap ulcer medication causes uterine contractions, an American scientist hoping to treat Cushing’s disease discovers that mifepristone blocks progesterone. Does new drug development typically hinge on happenstance or is there something about an abortion pill that required a fair dose of luck?
I think both are true. A lot of science, in general, is trial and error, which is kind of a degree of........