Emergency room visits caused by complications from taking the abortion pill are more frequently being miscoded, according to a new study, raising concerns amid the increased prevalence of chemical abortions.
The study, released last month, is based on data from 28,534 emergency room visits made by Medicaid patients within 30 days of having either a surgical abortion or having taken the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. The data was compiled by the U.S. Center for Medicaid and Medicaid Services from 2016 to 2021.
The analysis report is a collaboration between the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the pro-life grassroots advocacy organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and researchers at the University of North Carolina, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Florida-based Elliott Institute.
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Among 16,146 emergency room visits following a surgical abortion that occurred from 2016 to 2021, 1,240 (7.7%) were miscoded, up from 1.3% between 2004 and 2015.
Meanwhile, 18% of the 12,388 emergency room visits following the ingestion of abortion pills in those six years were miscoded. By comparison, only 4.7% of emergency room visits following a chemical abortion were miscoded between 2004 and 2015.
Of the total 2,225 miscoded visits following a chemical abortion, 1,995 (89.7%) were coded as high acuity, meaning that the emergency room visits were classified as either “severe” or “critical.” Similarly, 88% of the 1,240 miscoded emergency room visits following surgical abortions were coded as high acuity. The majority of correctly coded emergency room visits following both chemical (70.2%) and surgical (68.4%) abortions were coded as high acuity.
The report noted that the “vast majority” of induced abortions occurring up to 70 days of gestation are carried out with the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol.
“However, these findings indicate there is an increasing likelihood that, should the woman require treatment in the [emergency room] following the abortion, the complication or adverse event is attributed to a spontaneous abortion or miscarriage and not the induced abortion,” the report added. “Further, on average, these miscoded visits require more extensive treatment than [emergency room] visits which are accurately coded.”
“Miscoding via concealment of the abortion could result in delay of the delivery of necessary care or otherwise influence or misdirect important decisions in the management of the patient’s condition,” the report added.
Miscoding “could also result from” genuine errors “rather than active concealment by the patient, with both purposeful and accidental misclassifications resulting in the underreporting of post-abortion complications.”
“Studies have indicated that more than half of women who carry out a medical abortion experience severe pain,” the report continues. “Very recent studies have indicated that women are not prepared for the level of pain they feel, that for some it is comparable to the pain of a delivery and not, as often described to them, ‘like your period.'”
“These miscoded abortion complications remain invisible to research scientists resulting in a large underestimation of actual medical abortion complications.”
In a statement reacting to the report’s release, CLI Vice President and Director of Data Analytics Dr. James Studnicki asserted that whenever “abortion-related emergencies are disguised as miscarriages, it impairs a doctor’s ability to make informed, evidence-based decisions.” He described the phenomenon as a “public health crisis” rather than a “documentation error.”
Studnicki condemned what he referred to as “the abortion industry’s push for concealment” of women’s abortion history in emergency rooms as “unethical and dangerous,” adding that he believed women “deserve honest guidance and proper medical care, not advice that jeopardizes their health.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
