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JAMA Insights
Women's Health
June 2, 2022

Medication for Early Pregnancy Termination

Author Affiliations
  • 1Division of Complex Family Planning, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora
  • 2University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio
  • 3Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio
JAMA. 2022;327(24):2446-2447. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.6344

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved a medication abortion regimen in 2000, which consisted of mifepristone (a progesterone antagonist that causes pregnancy tissue to detach from the endometrium) and misoprostol (a prostaglandin that induces cervical softening and uterine contractions). Current evidence-based regimens still rely on this drug combination, which is approved for abortions up to 10 weeks’ gestational age. In 2017 in the US, medication abortions accounted for an estimated 60% of abortions at less than 10 weeks’ gestation.1

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