If you’re pregnant and seeking an abortion, your nearest Planned Parenthood health center or another trusted reproductive health care provider can determine how far along into pregnancy you are and help you understand your options.
Finding and taking abortion pills to end a pregnancy without the help of a doctor or nurse is called “self-managed abortion”. Learn more about self-managed abortion at Plan C .
“Abortion pill” is the common name for using two different medicines to end a pregnancy: mifepristone and misoprostol.
Medication abortion — also called the abortion pill — is a safe and effective way to end an early pregnancy.
“Abortion pill” is the common name for using two different medicines to end a pregnancy: mifepristone and misoprostol. You can also use misoprostol alone to have an abortion.
First, you take a pill called mifepristone. Pregnancy needs a hormone called progesterone to grow normally. Mifepristone blocks your body’s own progesterone, stopping the pregnancy from growing.
Then you take the second medicine, misoprostol, either right away or up to 48 hours later. This medicine causes cramping and bleeding to empty your uterus . It’s kind of like having a really heavy, crampy period, and the process is very similar to an early miscarriage. If you don’t have any bleeding within 24 hours after taking misoprostol, call your nurse or doctor.
Your doctor or nurse may give you both medicines at the health center . In some states you can do a virtual visit and have the pills mailed to you or pick them up at a local pharmacy. Some states have laws that say you must come to the health center for a separate visit before you get the abortion pills.
Your doctor or nurse will give you detailed directions about where, when, and how to take the medicines. And they’ll talk with you about medicines to manage side effects, like cramp pain and nausea.
The abortion pill is very effective. If you’re taking mifepristone and misoprostol, it depends on how far along the pregnancy is, and how many doses of medicine you take:
In general, taking both mifepristone and misoprostol works a bit better than taking misoprostol only.
Taking misoprostol alone works to end the pregnancy about 85-95% of the time — depending on how far along the pregnancy is and how you take the medicine.
The abortion pill usually works, but if it doesn’t, you can take more medicine or have an in-clinic abortion .
In general, you can have a medication abortion up to 77 days (11 weeks) after the first day of your last period. If it’s been 78 days or more since the first day of your last period, you can have an in-clinic abortion to end your pregnancy.
Which kind of abortion you choose all depends on your personal preference and situation. With medication abortion, some people like that you don’t need to have a procedure in a doctor’s office. You can have your medication abortion on your own schedule, at home or in another comfortable place that you choose. You get to decide who you want to be with during your abortion, or you can go it alone. Because medication abortion is similar to a miscarriage, many people feel like it’s more “natural” and less invasive. And some people may not have an in-clinic abortion provider close by, so abortion pills are more available to them.
Your doctor, nurse, or health center staff can help you decide which kind of abortion is best for you.
The “abortion pill” is the popular name for a safe and effective way to end an early pregnancy using a combination of two medicines: mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone stops the pregnancy from growing. After taking mifepristone, you take a second medi cine (misoprostol) up to 4 8 hours later. This causes cramping and bleeding and empties your uterus.
Claims about treatments that reverse the effects of medication abortion are out there, and a handful of states require doctors and nurses to tell their patients about them before they can provide abortion care. But these claims haven’t been proven in reliable medical studies — and they haven’t been tested for safety, effectiveness, or the likelihood of side effects — so experts like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reject these untested treatment ideas.
Studies on the abortion pill do show that if you take the first medicine (mifepristone) but don’t take the second (misoprostol) the abortion is l ess likely to work. So if you took mifepristone (the first medicine) but are having second thoughts, contact the doctor or nurse you saw for the abortion right away to talk about your best next steps and what to expect.
If you started taking misoprostol, It’s important to keep in mind that misoprostol can cause birth defects if the pregnancy continues. So contact your nurse or doctor right away if you’re having second thoughts about your abortion.
RU-486 is the former name of mifepristone — one of the medications that you take to have a medication abortion. RU-486 is now called "the abortion pill" or "Mifeprex" (the brand name for mifepristone).
RU-486 was developed in the 1980s. It's been safely used in Europe since 1987, and in the US since 2000.
RU-486 blocks a hormone that your body needs to continue a pregnancy. It works best when you use it with another medication called misoprostol, which causes bleeding to empty your uterus.
The RU-486 abortion pill is a safe and effective way to end an early pregnancy.
The abortion pill is very effective, but it works less well when you’re more than 8 weeks pregnant. The effectiveness depends on how far along you are in your pregnancy and when you take the medicine. After 11 weeks, there’s a bigger chance of stronger bleeding or cramps.
You can make sure that your medication abortion worked by taking a pregnancy test, ultrasound, or blood test. Your nurse or doctor will also walk you through everything you need to know during your medication abortion appointment.
Regular pregnancy tests that you get at the store and some health centers may give you a false positive result for up to 5 weeks after your abortion — that’s because it takes a while for the pregnancy hormones to leave your body, and the test can pick those up , but it doesn’t always mean you’re pregnant.
However, it IS possible to get pregnant very soon after an abortion — even if pregnancy tests are coming up positive or your period hasn’t started yet. So if you’ve had sex without using birth control since having an abortion, a positive pregnancy test could mean that you’re pregnant again.
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