One of the largest US academic publishers has retracted a scientific study on the risks posed by chemical abortion that was part of an upcoming Supreme Court case — prompting the study’s authors to accuse the publisher of pandering to pro-choice activists.
On February 5, Sage Publishing retracted a 2021 study in the journal Health Services Research and Management Epidemiology that found a 507% increase between 2002 and 2015 in emergency room visits following chemical abortion with the mifepristone pill, according to an analysis of Medicaid data.
Another 2022 study published in the same journal that was retracted showed how complications from chemical abortions were often misclassified as miscarriages and posed “significant risk factors for subsequent hospitalization.”
One of the largest US academic publishers is withdrawing a scientific study on the risks posed by chemical abortions that is part of an upcoming Supreme Court case. Getty Images The two studies were cited in a judge’s decision to uphold the FDA’s approval of mifepristone in April 2023, which was later delayed by the Supreme Court after an appeal from President Biden’s Justice Department. AP
Both studies were cited in US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s decision to halt FDA approval of mifepristone in April 2023, a decision later stayed by the Supreme Court after an appeal from President Biden’s attorney general, Elizabeth Prelogar.
Oral arguments in the appeal are set to be heard on March 26.
The FDA and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have stated that mifepristone is “safe” and “effective” in terminating pregnancies up to 70 days of gestation.
After Kacsmaryk’s decision, the study’s co-lead author, James Studnicki, told The Post that he had received a note of concern from Sage in July 2023 that cited “potential issues regarding data representation in the article and conflicts of interest of the authors,” as well as a conflict of interest with one of the original peer reviewer.
Sage Publishing retracted a study that found a 507% increase between 2002 and 2015 in emergency room visits following chemical abortions with the mifepristone pill, according to an analysis of Medicaid data. Sage Publishing
Studnicki and his co-authors were kept confidential about the individual who had reported the concern — who was revealed in a State Newsroom article as Southern University School of Pharmacy professor Chris Adkins — and were told later that year that both studies had been retracted.
The Journal of Health Services Research and Management Epidemiology also kicked Studnicki off its editorial board without explanation.
In a response letter, Studnicki criticized Sage for the decision, saying that none of the findings in the study had been “explicitly challenged, let alone invalidated,” that there was “no evidence of error, miscalculation, fabrication or falsification,” that the criteria were due to be withdrawn. did not meet publication guidelines and therefore retracting the study was “clearly inappropriate.”
Studnicki and two other co-authors, Tessa Longbons and Dr. Ingrid Skop, affiliated with the Virginia-based Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion research organization, they revealed on the front page of the study. @LozierInstitute/X
Sage’s retraction notice claimed both the study and one other article did not comply with Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) standards and that post-publication peer review had found “fundamental problems with study design and methodology” that “show[d] lack of scientific rigor and invalidity[d] author’s conclusion in whole or in part.”
Studnicki and two other co-authors, Tessa Longbons and Dr. Ingrid Skop, affiliated with the Virginia-based Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion research organization, they revealed on the front page of the study.
Studnicki is currently the group’s vice president of data analytics, and Skop, who serves as its vice president of medical affairs, is a board-certified OB-GYN with more than 30 years of experience. Longbons is a senior research associate.
Dr. Ingrid Skop said she believed she and her fellow researchers were “targeted”. CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images
All of them told The Post that the recall was “unprecedented,” with Studnicki saying the expression of concern came across as someone “trying to harass us.”
“I’ve spent 50 years in academia working at three different universities, and I’ve never been involved in a recall,” Studnicki said. “There is absolutely no, no, no suggestion that this science is at all inadequate or flawed.
Longbons said, “It also feels like a double standard, because, of course, you know, one of the arguments they make is that we don’t report our conflicts of interest.
“And none of us make a lot of money doing the work we do. And yet, researchers working for the Guttmacher Institute and other very vocal pro-abortion organizations never report their conflict.”
The FDA’s case for approval of mifepristone is still on appeal. AFP via Getty Images
Scope also said of their research on the potential risk of chemical abortion complications, “It undercuts their narrative that it’s very safe.
“And obviously, I think that’s why we’re being targeted.”
Longbons said, “This incident points to a larger and newer phenomenon, which is that many of our scientific institutions and publications are no longer standing up for open investigations.
“Instead, we see a faction of biased elites across the medical community with all the power trying to suppress any research that contradicts their approved pro-abortion narrative. Scientific research and publication should be based on science, not driven by ideology.”
The Post has reached out to Sage representatives for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
