Earlier this year, Live Action News published a story of a young woman named Shanyce who nearly died from abortion drugs. After experiencing stabbing pains from the abortion drugs Planned Parenthood prescribed, she went back to the facility where she was told she was fine and to go home. Soon after arriving home, her complexion looked blue so her father drove her to the ER. It didn’t take long for the hospital to discover Shanyce still had some of the remains of the child in her uterus. After the first three surgeries to remove the remains, she went into septic shock, she was put into an induced coma, and she had to have a partial hysterectomy.

Thankfully Shanyce survived to tell her story, but sadly she’s not alone in experiencing serious side effects from the abortion drugs. In service to their mission to profit from as many abortions as possible, the abortion industry has been deceiving women on the severe risks abortion drugs pose. The result is not only the deaths of millions in the womb but deaths of women as well and others who have suffered severe physical harm.

This week, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey took action to defend women from these lies by filing a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood. The lawsuit alleges the abortion giant has been violating the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act by hiding the dangers of abortion drugs from women in order to cut costs and increase revenue. Bailey is seeking civil penalties and restitution for Missouri women who have taken the abortion drug in the last five years.

Here are three lies from Planned Parenthood that Bailey is seeking to expose:

LIE #1: Abortion drugs are ‘safer than Tylenol.’

From Capitol Hill and state capitol buildings to Tik Tok and MSNBC, the abortion lobby has successfully spread its falsity that abortion drugs are “safer than Tylenol.”  Abortion businesses often make this false claim not only to sell more drugs in the short-term but to achieve the complete deregulation of kill pills so that they can sell them over the counter (as Democrat attorneys general are suing to achieve).

In May, the Charlotte Lozier Institute published a peer-reviewed article debunking this claim. Dr. Cameron Louttit found:

• Flawed methodology: To validate the claim, there must be a controlled, scientifically appropriate study comparing abortion drugs to Tylenol. No such study exists, and it would be impossible to do so because these drugs are used for entirely different purposes.
• Overlooked risks: The FDA assesses drug safety based on a range of factors, not just death rates. The comparison ignores serious adverse events of abortion drugs, such as sepsis and hemorrhage.
• Context misrepresentation: While Tylenol-related deaths often result from misuse in a much larger user base, deaths from abortion drugs occur under prescribed use.

Louttit summed up his research saying:

“For years now, the abortion lobby’s claim that abortion drugs are ‘safer than Tylenol’ has dominated public discussion, propelled by the illusion of scientific consensus. However, no such support exists. This baseless claim, repeated by medical societies, politicians, media pundits and researchers, has profoundly influenced public opinion and policy. But as this paper details, those spreading it lack the evidence they routinely claim.”

LIE #2: Serious side effects are rare.

The abortion lobby has so dominated the internet with this lie that even AI is telling girls to order abortion drugs and take them behind their parents’ backs, according to a report from The Daily Wire.

In reality, Mifepristone is a “black box” drug that has never been tested on minors. According to the FDA’s label, one in 25 women who take it will end up in the emergency room. A growing body of evidence shows these drugs pose a much greater risk than this to women. In April the Foundation for the Restoration of America and Ethics & Public Policy Center released separate studies showing 1 in 10 women experience severe adverse events like hemorrhaging, infection, and sepsis.

LIE #3: You should lie to doctors.

Abortion pill mills and pro-abortion influencers continuously emphasize that women and girls who have taken the abortion drug should lie to doctors and say they’re having a miscarriage if they face complications. This is made possible by the FDA’s 2023 regulation that allows for the mail-order of abortion drugs without any in-person doctor visit. This means the doctors who treat women for hemorrhaging, infection, and sepsis may not know they’re treating abortion drug complications unless a patient tells them.

A recent Charlotte Lozier Institute study on anonymized Medicaid claims data uncovered widespread miscoding of emergency room (ER) visits following drug-induced abortions.

• ER visits after abortion drug use were 79% more likely to be miscoded as miscarriages compared to surgical abortions.
• From 2016–2021, nearly 84% of drug-induced abortion-related ER visits were miscoded.
• Critically, miscoded ER visits were significantly more likely to be severe: Among drug-induced abortion cases, miscoded visits were 50% more likely to be labeled high acuity over correctly coded visits.

Dr. Ingrid Skop who regularly treats women who present with abortion drug complications in the ER says lying to doctors puts women at greater risk of things like:

• More pain, the body is working harder to expel healthy tissue that is normally attached (as opposed to dead tissue from miscarriage that should be easier to expel).
• Chronic bleeding may lead to more severe anemia, increasing risk of transfusion.
• Taking medications that will fail them and lead to a worsening of their condition: If a woman presents having already taken mifepristone and misoprostol, and may have taken 2-3x the FDA-approved dosage of misoprostol, that changes the clinical decision-making process because it is now considered a failed treatment. A doctor is more likely to recommend surgical aspiration if he knows a woman has already failed medical management. Conversely, if he is unaware she has already taken drugs, he may send her home with the same medications she has already failed, increasing the risk that she will need to return to the ER for the treatment she needs.

Bold Leadership in Missouri

Attorney General Andrew Bailey is thankfully not sitting on the sidelines allowing the abortion industry to continue its lies to Missouri women. SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser summed up his bold moves in a press release when the lawsuit was announced:

“Attorney General Bailey is modeling leadership for the rest of the country by standing up to the abortion lobby and fighting for truth, transparency and the safety of Missouri women. He’s showing real courage by holding Planned Parenthood accountable, and we applaud his bold action.

“Women deserve to know the truth about the real risks of abortion drugs. Planned Parenthood has been lying to women for years, putting profits over people. This is medical negligence disguised as health care. Women are ending up in emergency rooms, and some are losing their lives — all so the abortion industry can make a buck.”