Anti-Abortion Politics Could Be Blocking a Breast Cancer Breakthrough

Mifepristone could help reduce the risk of breast cancer, experts say. But first, companies have to be willing to invest in more trials.

By Danielle Han  |  August 15, 2025 | 5:29pm
Photo: Getty Images Politics
Anti-Abortion Politics Could Be Blocking a Breast Cancer Breakthrough

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know how much anti-abortion activists love to use junk science and misinformation to bludgeon their agenda into policy. But apparently, the mifepristone pills that these bozos so avidly rail against could do much more for science–if only they’d let up on the drivel.

On Thursday, a group of doctors and scientists from England, Scotland, Sweden, and Iraq released a report calling for more research into mifepristone, citing three smaller studies in which the pill revealed a potential for reducing the risk of breast cancer. While the reports, published in 2008, 2022, and 2024, all revealed that mifepristone can limit the effect of progesterone—a hormone that drives the cell growth typically found in breast cancer—pharmaceutical companies have stopped short of investigating further because of the controversy around abortion pills. 

“It is deeply disappointing that the successful application of mifepristone in one area of clinical medicine is hindering more extensive research into other indications that could benefit public health,” the international group of experts on reproductive rights and cancer wrote. “The time is long overdue to give mifepristone the opportunity it deserves to be investigated as a non-surgical option for primary prevention.” 

Lead author Kristina Gemzell Danielsson was particularly vocal about the situation. “We have very promising data, but no efforts are being made to continue with the research…The regulatory hurdles are absurd, probably because it is associated with induced abortion.” She blames the standstill on the “stigma around mifepristone used for abortion,” saying it is “part of why mifepristone is not more extensively researched for prevention of breast cancer.” 

The analysis could also provide groundbreaking results for people with inherited mutations, in particular. As the Guardian reports:

Mifepristone is a type of drug known as a selective progesterone receptor modulator.

If proven to work, it could help women who are at high risk of breast cancer, such as those who carry a variant of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Currently they are offered surgical options for their treatment, such as a mastectomy, or drugs that are of “low efficacy”, the authors say. “

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among women in the U.S. and the most common cause of cancer death in women globally. Fighting it is a bipartisan effort (well, for the most part—let’s not forget GOP Representative Mike France’s weird deleted Twitter post alluding to breast checks and unsolicited groping. Shudder.) But, as Danielsson says: “Ideology can slow everything down.”

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