Study Shreds Planned Parenthood’s Favorite ‘Safer Than Tylenol’ Abortion Pill Talking Point

A new peer-reviewed study by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) found no evidence to substantiate the popular claim that abortion medications are safer than Tylenol.

Abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood have long claimed that mifepristone, a pill used for medical abortions, is as safe as commonly-used medicines like Tylenol. The CLI study, published in the journal BioTech on Tuesday, found that no scientifically valid comparison between mifepristone and Tylenol exists. 

“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,” said Cameron Louttit, director of life sciences at CLI and author of the study. “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.” (RELATED: ‘Follow The Facts’: Activists Renew Calls For DOJ To Investigate Five Aborted Babies At DC Clinic)

A woman dressed as a mifepristone pill dances with supporters of Planned Parenthood and pro-choice activists during a rally outside the US Supreme Court on April 2, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by DREW ANGERER/AFP via Getty Images)

Titled “The Origins and Proliferation of Unfounded Comparisons Regarding the Safety of Mifepristone,” the study emphasizes that evaluating drug safety solely based on death rates is misleading, as it overlooks serious adverse events such as heavy bleeding and severe abdominal pain, which are critical to a holistic safety assessment.

“In collapsing complex safety considerations into simplistic comparisons that leverage wholly incomparable metrics, these assertions systematically violate the norms and regulations that inform evidence-based biomedical communication,” the study states. “Not only have the comparisons between mifepristone and other drugs failed in their duty to adequately assess this impossibility, but they have also demonstrated a complete disregard for the need to communicate comprehensive and truthful safety information to patients, policymakers, jurists, and the public.”

The CLI study also found that the claim that mifepristone is as safe as common drugs like Tylenol originated in a 2003 Chicago Tribune article in which a doctor compared mifepristone’s death rate to an uncited penicillin death rate. 

Planned Parenthood, one of the top abortion providers in the U.S., maintains that the abortion pill is “safer than many other medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra,” according to its website.

The CLI’s findings follow the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s (EPPC) recent study finding that nearly 11% of patients experience a “serious adverse event” after taking the abortion pill — including hemorrhaging, sepsis, fallopian tube rupture or infection — compared to the 0.5% rate presented on the drug label. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently described the EPPC’s data as “alarming,” and directed the Food and Drug Administration to review the safety of the abortion pill and update its labeling if necessary.

Medication abortions currently account for two-thirds of abortions performed each year.

Danco Laboratories, LLC, which manufactures mifepristone, and Planned Parenthood did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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