Two weeks ago, we wrote about the dangerous effects of the abortion pills, which cause life-threatening complications in millions of women worldwide. We pointed out that the World Health Organization has aided this spread by advocating for the “safety” of the abortion drugs and listing them as “essential” medications.
But who is actually responsible for shipping the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East?
You’ll recognize the Big Three.
Number One is, unsurprisingly, the United Nations Population Fund through the UNFPA Supplies Partnership. UNFPA documents reveal that it has provided mifepristone, misoprostol, and the “combined pack” as part of its Reproductive Health Supplies since 2020. These deadly drugs continue to be included in partner country supply chains until the present day, as documented in the latest Annual Program Report from 2024. Reproductive Health Supplies are sent to 46 countries, a majority of which are in Africa.
The UNFPA’s distribution of abortion drugs goes back even further, but 2020 was the first year the organization began explicitly admitting that it was not only buying the drugs but also lobbying nations to include them on national essential medicine lists.
We suspect that UNFPA’s sudden openness about its efforts had to do with the incoming Biden administration, the most pro-abortion administration in American history.
Even so, the UNFPA did not disclose exactly how many women were handed mifepristone pills. But the statistics that it does publish reveal that this is a massive effort. In 2024 alone, the population control agency brags that 54 million “women, adolescents and youth benefited from sexual and reproductive health services” that it provided. An additional 14.3 million women and young people who came in seeking primary health care for infections and injuries also found themselves offered or, better put, subjected to “sexual and reproductive health services.”
The current UNFPA Supplies Partnership program, which began in 2021, is set to run until 2030, with mifepristone listed among the drugs that will continue to be included. The UNFPA highlights the role it is playing in expanding “access to and procurement of mifepristone and misoprostol for low-income countries” in its descriptions of the program.
Given all this, it is farcical that the UNFPA continues to deny that it facilitates or funds abortion, when it is clearly doing so by sending containerloads of abortion drugs around the world.
Number Two is MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes International). Unlike UNFPA, MSI openly boasts of its advocacy that mifepristone and misoprostol be distributed everywhere and used often.
In Tanzania, for example, MSI claims that its advocacy to register and authorize mifepristone for abortions and post-abortion care was critical. MSI argued that its use was in line with local pro-life laws, and touts this as a model for enabling legal access to mifepristone within a developing country setting.
MSI also does not publish exact figures on the number of abortion pills provided or chemical abortions facilitated in its annual reports, but total abortion and post-abortion care numbers it does provide are significant. In 2024, MSI reported that it provided 4.5 million people globally with abortion or post-abortion care, including both medical and surgical procedures.
Our guess is that at least half of these abortions are chemical, which would mean that over 2 million women were given abortion pills by MSI that year.
Number Three in the “Big Three” of abortion pill providers is, as you might have expected, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
By 2018 it had launched the Medical Abortion Commodities Database (MedAb.org), which catalogs the availability of “quality-assured” mifepristone, misoprostol, and combined packs (commonly referred to as combipacks) by country. This database identifies brands of mifepristone, misoprostol, and combipacks that are registered and available at the national level.
This focus on “quality assurance” really means ensuring that the drug is as deadly to the unborn child as advertised.
IPPF is also in the abortion pill PR business. It publicly promotes the mifepristone–misoprostol combination, touts what it calls “medication abortion” in glowing terms, and celebrates how the abortion pill is available in more and more countries.
Like MSI, IPPF goes beyond advocacy to actually perform both surgical and chemical abortions. In 2024, IPPF claimed responsibility for no fewer than 6.5 million abortions. That means millions more chemical abortions every year, and more women at risk of life-threatening complications.
Aside from the Big Three, there are a number of smaller groups aiding the abortion pills spread.
Women on Web, Aid Access, and Women on Waves have made it their business to ship doses across national borders, especially to countries where the abortion pill is rightfully regulated.
Groups such as Ipas, Gynuity, and the Concept Foundation also contribute to the spread of the abortion pill. They lobby for expanded access and run clinical trials whose published studies make for some grisly reading.
Finally, contributing to the flow of abortion drugs are what we at PRI call “Abortion Networks.” The spider-like networks span Latin America, Africa, and Europe and are composed of groups and organizations that have, until now, largely flown under the radar.
But they operate under a common command and control system and pursue a common agenda. And that agenda, today, involves advocating for and facilitating the spread of abortion drugs, including to countries where abortion is illegal.
The Latin American Consortium Against Unsafe Abortion (CLACAI) is one such network. Amidst its many action plans, CLACAI has one specifically aimed at pushing the abortion pill.
As stated in PRI’s CLACAI report:
“CLACAI focuses on diversifying and facilitating medical and surgical techniques deemed ‘appropriate’ for performing abortions. This includes promoting self-managed pharmacological abortion outside the healthcare system through the use of misoprostol, disseminating guides for the use of misoprostol and mifepristone, training healthcare personnel in abortion techniques, and offering remote services through digital platforms.” [emphasis added]
Another abortion network that we highlighted in a recent report was Family Planning 2030 (FP2030). FP2030 has hubs in every region of the globe and uses its reach to spread so-called “reproductive health services,” which of course include the abortion pill.
One example of FP2030 reach is its close connection with the group DKT International which uses social-marketing strategies to popularize and commercialize a wide range of “sexual-health products” including mifepristone and misoprostol.
Stopping the spread of the abortion pill will not be easy.
We at PRI, through the work of our regional offices, will continue to expose the Big Three of the Abortion Pill business.
In part due to our past and present efforts neither the UNFPA, nor MSI, nor IPPF is receiving any funding from the U.S. government. We must make sure the funding cut-off continues, even after Trump’s current term ends.
Equally important, we must continue to encourage HHS Director Robert Kennedy Jr. and FDA Director Marty Makary to withdraw approval of the drug here in the U.S. This action would not just save the lives of women and babies in our nation., but would have strong ripple effects around the world as other countries follow suit.
