A lexicon defines an abortion pill as "a drug taken orally to induce abortion, especially early in pregnancy". Now, the expression 'abortion pill' generally applies to the Mifeprex drug, an abortifacient comprising of misoprostol and mifepristone, two medications that are approved by the FDA. This particular abortion pill acts within the initial eight weeks of pregnancy and produces a chemically brought on miscarriage.

The drug Mifepristone, developed in France, is also called RU-486. Now, this drug acts by checking progesterone, the hormone that assists in maintaining the pregnancy. In the absence of this hormone, the lining of the uterus will be shed and, depending on the woman concerned, there may be some bleeding also.

Mifepristone is an oral pill, which is administered in the abortion clinic. Subsequent to this drug being taken, a second medicine called Misoprostol is given by the clinic. Misoprostol should be taken orally within twenty-seventy two hours of taking the Mifepristone medicine. The Misoprostol drug brings about the contraction of the uterus, therefore, resulting in a miscarriage.

A majority of women favor this kind of abortion, since it enables them to be in the privacy of their homes at the time the miscarriage takes place. In addition, since there is little that a woman can do under such circumstances, but await the miscarriage to occur, some of them find this to be a good thing.

There may be some amount of bleeding when a women is administered the initial drug Mifepristone. The degree of bleeding may widely differ from one woman to another. Quite a few women do not any bleeding at all from the first medicine, whereas some others may go through heavy period-like bleeding.

The second abortion medicine Misoprostol, tends to give rise to cramping as well as bleeding. At times, this may come about inside of twenty minutes of consuming the pill. At any rate, a woman experiences cramping, at times in waves and at other times extremely acutely, within six-eight hours of taking Misoprostol. A number of women suffer from side effects such as nausea and diarrhea. Blood clots are generally ejected, but it is just not possible to make out the embryo, as it is very tiny.

It is of crucial importance to go to the abortion clinic for a follow-up visit, about two weeks following the taking of the abortion drug. This check-up calls for an examination to be carried out to confirm that the abortion has happened. While the abortion drug is about 95%-97% successful, there are still a tiny percentage of women, who need to undergo a further surgical abortion procedure, in order to bring to an end the abortion. Now, this surgical procedure entails dilating the uterus and then using suction to eliminate the residual tissue.

Just as is the case with any medical treatment, the use of an abortion drug, too involves some risks. There are times when a women needs to undergo blood transfusions to make up for the loss of blood because of severe bleeding, but such cases are quite rare.