Abortion bans lead to worse outcomes for miscarriages

Management of miscarriage requires the same medications and procedures used for abortion, including mifepristone and misoprostol, which in combination is proven to be safer and more effective than misoprostol alone.

In the retrospective cohort study, researchers used a national commercial insurance database to evaluate medical data from 123,598 individuals who experienced miscarriage prior to 10 weeks of pregnancy, between the years of 2018 and 2024.

Analysis showed that abortion bans were associated with a 2.8% increase in expectant management and a 2.2% decrease in medication management. Further, among those individuals who did receive medication, abortion ban states had a 13.8% increase in misoprostol-only regimens relative to the evidence-based mifepristone-plus-misoprostol combination.

This means more women were forced to carry pregnancies that weren’t viable, potentially putting their health and fertility at risk and prolonging the grief of a lost pregnancy.

Most concerning, these findings are likely only the tip of the iceberg, Rodriguez said.