Journal retracts studies cited in Federal Court ruling against abortion pill

The review found that the studies, which suggested that medical abortion was unsafe, included incorrect factual assumptions and misleading presentation of data.< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">An academic journal publisher this week withdrew two studies cited by a Texas federal judge last year when he ruled that the abortion pill mifepristone should be taken off the market .

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Most of the study authors are doctors and researchers affiliated with anti-abortion groups, and their reports suggest that medical abortion causes dangerous complications, contradicting widely held evidence that abortion pills are safe. The lawsuit in which the studies were cited will be heard by the Supreme Court in March. The High Court's decision could have major implications for access to medical abortion, which is now the most common method of terminating a pregnancy.

The publisher, Sage Journals, said it had asked for two independent experts to assess the studies, published in 2021 and 2022 in the journal Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology, after a reader raised concerns.

Sage said the two experts had “identified fundamental problems in the study design and methodology, unjustified or incorrect factual assumptions, material errors in the data analysis by the authors and misleading presentations of data which, in their opinion, demonstrate a lack of scientific rigor and invalidate the authors' conclusions. conclusions in whole or in part. in the mifepristone lawsuit.

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