Beyond the 'abortion pill': Real-life experiences of individuals taking mifepristone

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Ahead of oral arguments in the Supreme Court over access to mifepristone, more than 150 people shared stories with NPR about how they used the medication — and how it changed their lives.

Since it was first approved for use in 2000, mifepristone has been used by millions of women to provide abortions and manage miscarriages.Since it was first approved for use in 2000, mifepristone has been used by millions of women to provide abortions and manage miscarriages.For a while, it was known as RU-486. It's called Mifeprex or mifepristone – but many know it as"the abortion pill." It is one of two drugs – along with misoprostol – that arein the U.S. now.

Adams says she's grateful in all those years of miscarriages that she had medication to take to speed the process so they could try again. While the decision to get an abortion was easy for Rebecca, it was not as easy to actually get one. Her husband was then in the armed forces, so abortion wasn't covered by their insurance. And they were stationed at a base in upstate New York, more than an hour's drive away from the nearest sizable city. Even there, the local clinic that provided abortions was operating at reduced capacity due to pandemic-era safety measures, making appointments difficult to get, she said.

She went to the pharmacy to buy a test, which came back positive."I immediately was like, 'I can't have this baby. I can't,'" Alexandra said. Racing through her mind, she said, were thoughts about school, her future career, her life dreams and more than anything else, her abusive boyfriend.In 2007, the FDA's approval of mifepristone covered its use up to seven weeks of pregnancy. Alexandra had discovered hers early enough but had no time to waste.

Michelle Brown and her fiancé were planning their wedding when they learned she was pregnant. Though their first reaction was panic – they wanted kids, but thought it would happen after the wedding – it soon turned to excitement, though, she said, and they welcomed the pregnancy.Medical staff told her she could take a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol to prompt her body to expel the tissue. Or she could wait for her body to pass it naturally, they said.

Even though she and her fiancé had decided to keep the pregnancy, it had still upturned her life, she said — only to then upturn it again when she found out she was miscarrying. The pregnancy triggered a body dysphoria so acute that Cody considered killing themselves, they said."That was in the back of my head if they turned me away. That was my next choice," they said, recalling the trip to Planned Parenthood.

 

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