by Ziva Branstetter ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, strict bans on the procedure kicked in across the country, leaving women in at least 22 states with fewer options to end pregnancies that in some cases endangered their lives.ProPublica has uncovered at least two cases of women who died after their state banned abortion. In both cases, the women took pills to end their pregnancies and the abortion did not fully complete, causing complications, as can occur in a small number of cases involving abortion medication.Their stories speak to the challenges women face when abortion is banned, not the safety of abortion pills when taken properly and with appropriate follow-up care. We reviewed information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and from groups that closely track the latest medical advice and scientific evidence to answer the most frequently asked questions about abortion pills. What is abortion medication? What some people call the abortion pill" is actually a combination of two pills - mifepristone and misoprostol - commonly called abortion medication."Mifepristone tablets are also sold under the brand name Mifeprex, which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 2000 to be used along with misoprostol to end an intrauterine pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation. (That is measured as 70 days or less since the first day of a patient's last menstrual period.)Abortion pills are now used in more than 60% of all abortions in the U.S. health care system. How do abortion pills work? Mifepristone blocks a hormone called progesterone that is needed for a pregnancy to continue. The FDA-approved regimen is to take 200 milligrams of mifepristone on the first day. Patients are directed to take misoprostol within 24 to 48 hours of the mifepristone. The misoprostol works to expel fetal tissue from the uterus.In some cases, patients take a regime of misoprostol only to end a pregnancy.Patients are directed to follow up with a health care provider about seven to 14 days after taking mifepristone or earlier if any unusual symptoms are noted. (See below.) Are abortion pills safe? Yes. The FDA first approved Mifeprex 25 years ago, so there's an extensive record of safety involving this drug.Out of nearly 6 million women who've taken mifepristone since then, only 32 deaths of women who used the drug to terminate pregnancies were reported to the FDA through the end of 2022, regardless of whether the drug played a role in the death.Of those, 11 involved deaths of women who developed a deadly infection called sepsis. Most of the remaining cases involved intentional and accidental drug overdoses, suicide, homicide and ruptured ectopic pregnancies.The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has opposed laws and court rulings that limit or ban the availability of abortion pills. Mifepristone has been used safely and effectively for medication abortion for more than two decades. That safety and efficacy is backed up by robust, evidence-based, clinical data and its observed use by millions of people with support from clinicians, including obstetricians-gynecologists," the organization states on its website. Who should not take abortion medication? Abortion pills are not approved for use in some pregnancies. According to the FDA, people should not use abortion pills if they: