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The National Review recently published an op-ed by anti-abortionist Senator Ted Cruz and Live Action founder Lila Rose titled "The Federal Government Must Stop the Deadly Abortion Pill."
The piece was riddled with factual inaccuracies and misinformation.
Dr. Daniel Grossman, a researcher well known for his work on abortion medicine and contraceptives, decided to give the article a much-needed fact check on Twitter.
Hi @tedcruz & @LilaGraceRose. I saw your latest op-ed on the court's decision to make medication abortions more acc… https://t.co/stYA4G0di9— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148241.0
Grossman started by retitling the article "The Federal Government Must Increase Access to the Abortion Pill."
First, 11 of the 24 deaths were not even associated with abortion—these women died from things like drug overdose o… https://t.co/ZSoPZpkEls— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148245.0
Second, the denominator is 3.7 million women who have used it, so the overall rate of death is very low. Lower than… https://t.co/pAV2cGR4b5— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148249.0
This is incorrect—the ruling does not suspend the REMS. The REMS is still in effect. Clinicians dispensing mifepris… https://t.co/nTzHNc5IpQ— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148253.0
It seems Cruz and Rose couldn't make it through a paragraph without misleading their readers.
The medication may not be dispensed in pharmacies on prescription. The *only* thing that has changed is that certif… https://t.co/6kRJQd6K59— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148256.0
Rather than judicial activism, elected officials should ask why the FDA has not responded to the COVID-19 pandemic… https://t.co/tuV1nlmG7l— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148262.0
It's got to pretty hard to get this many things wrong in one paper.
@acog has said that ultrasound is not required prior to medication abortion for patients with a sure last period an… https://t.co/tMDLy2uTJZ— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148269.0
Of course the embryo is growing, that's how pregnancy works, however they're not fully formed in the first trimeste… https://t.co/STlOWAKTzA— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148273.0
Checking your math here since it's missing a denominator for context. Again, the denominator is 3.7 million, making… https://t.co/WAjeGAaxST— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148276.0
Hopefully Ted Cruz doesn't bring this same level of understanding to his job as a Senator.
Between 2000 and 2016, any clinician who identified a serious adverse event related to mifepristone use was require… https://t.co/IBg6bH2AiR— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148280.0
So during that period, emergency rooms *were* required to report adverse reactions. And there were so few that the… https://t.co/RFALjqQc2I— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148285.0
Fun fact: This Obama-era change was based on a recommendation from the scientific staff at the FDA. In addition the… https://t.co/LJpTQWhmVL— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148289.0
Hopefully plenty of people who read the Review's article also managed to catch Grossman's correction.
The GAO found that the FDA followed its standard review process when it approved the revised labeling based on revi… https://t.co/AjvePynnqs— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148290.0
We actually have a lot of evidence about the rate of adverse events with medication abortion. The risks are lower t… https://t.co/e9cMlIy7lZ— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148294.0
The most rigorous study of medication abortion safety included data from 11,319 MediCal patients in California. In… https://t.co/2wKYKGhtek— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148295.0
This incident serves as a reminder of how anyone, even sitting U.S. Senators, can weaponize misinformation.
It's really dangerous to throw numbers like this around without any context. The reality is that there are some ris… https://t.co/nJdgASxPYQ— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148299.0
The risk of needing a blood transfusion is about 10 times higher for childbirth compared to abortion. Here's a hyp… https://t.co/n7yHWHQrdR— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148302.0
If 4 million patients chose to get an medication abortion, research tells us about 4,000 will get a blood transfusi… https://t.co/FlpkpBw8R3— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148304.0
Grossman's thread continued long after most reasonable people probably made up their minds about the validity of the article.
Um, actually, there are health risks associated with continuing an unwanted pregnancy to term.… https://t.co/xAMMIBdhvx— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148308.0
Medical groups, including the AMA and ACOG disagree. https://t.co/9hsFq3aeea— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148311.0
You've used this intentionally vicious rhetoric throughout your piece, which is designed to fan the flames of viole… https://t.co/BUtDwcrFH3— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148316.0
Women deserve to have their medicine reported in an accurate and unbiased way.
On this point, we agree: pregnant patients deserve better. The maternal mortality rate is abysmal. I look forward… https://t.co/46x8bC1haA— Dr. Daniel Grossman (@Dr. Daniel Grossman)1597148320.0
Twitter was extremely grateful to Grossman for weighing in on the article.
@DrDGrossman @tedcruz @LilaGraceRose Thank you for this thread.— #TodaysWonderWomen OUT NOW! // Asha Dahya (@#TodaysWonderWomen OUT NOW! // Asha Dahya)1597159294.0
@DrDGrossman @tedcruz @LilaGraceRose Great thread. Thanks for correcting the record. Sadly neither @tedcruz nor… https://t.co/568pozkTNG— Poppy Northcutt (@Poppy Northcutt)1597175549.0
@DrDGrossman @tedcruz @LilaGraceRose Neither of those two care about facts or using facts to appeal to their follow… https://t.co/cr077LBVN6— Kay (@Kay)1597159643.0
Who knows—perhaps, before long, Cruz and Rose will issue a new edition of their article with corrections! Only time will tell.