Chemically-induced abortions in South Australia are being allowed well past the recommended limit, and the complication rate is almost twice what the authorities admit, according to the newly-released Termination of Pregnancy in South Australia 2025 report.
by Dr. Mark Hobart
In this article:
- Introduction
- Total abortions and abortion rate
- Telemedicine
- Late-term abortion
- Abortion provision
- Abortion methods
- Abortion pill abuse
- Complications
- Accounting for discrepancies in complication data
- Conclusion
- Download the report
Introduction
The 2025 South Australian government report into abortion has revealed:
- that Mifepristone/Misoprostol is being used outside the gestational limit that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) recommends for medical abortion, that is, greater than nine weeks. According to their data it is being used in some cases at greater than 14 weeks’ gestation.
- that this method of abortion results in a 10% complication rate, 97% of which is caused by retained products of conception. This complication usually requires surgical intervention.
The alternative method for abortion at gestation less than 14 weeks is vacuum aspiration or dilation and curettage and, according to the report, this method has a complication rate of 0.4%.
Total abortions and abortion rate
According to the report, the total number of abortions dropped in 2025, when compared with the previous year, from 4,778 to 4,647. It also found that the abortion rate is the lowest since 2000, at 12.6%.
“There were 4,647 terminations of pregnancy notified in South Australia in 2025, compared with 4,778 in 2024. From 2001, the termination of pregnancy rate in South Australia has been declining with a previous low of 13.2 terminations of pregnancy per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years in 2017. In more recent years, this rate increased to 14.0 terminations of pregnancy per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years in 2022 and 2023 (Table 1, Figure 1). However, in 2025, the termination of pregnancy rate has again decreased to 12.6 per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years, which is the lowest rate since reporting commenced in 2000.” [p. 6]
Telemedicine
The report showed that very few women are currently accessing abortion drugs via telehealth consultations, despite abortion lobbyists pushing for this service to become more widely used.
“Telemedicine provision of early medical abortion prescription in 2025 was accessed
by 0.1% of women residing in metropolitan regions and 0.2% of women residing in
country South Australia.” [p. 3, para. 3]
Late-term abortion
The report found a drop in the number of late-term abortions, that is, those performed after 22 weeks 6 days’ gestation.
“In 2025, most terminations of pregnancy were conducted before 14 weeks gestation (91.0%). There were 32 terminations performed after 22 weeks and 6 days gestation (0.7% of all terminations of pregnancies) which was lower compared to 2024 (49 terminations of pregnancy, 1.1% of all terminations of pregnancies).” [p. 3, para. 4]
Abortion provision
The overwhelming majority of terminations are being performed at government clinics, i.e., those operated by SA Health.
“Medical practitioners in family advisory clinics conducted 87.6% of the terminations in South Australia in 2025, followed by general practitioners (4.7%) The overall proportion of terminations conducted in general practice including by general practitioners, endorsed midwives, and nurse practitioners in 2025 (94.1%) is slightly higher than in 2024 (93.7%) with 7.6% of 9 terminations in 2025 being conducted by obstetricians and gynaecologists, including those in training” [p. 8-9]
Abortion methods
As the report shows, chemical abortions account for almost 60% of all abortions being performed in South Australia, and 64% of those performed before 14 weeks. This is consistent with the trend of abortion pills being the preferred method in the western world.
“Method of pregnancy termination: In 2025, the majority (59.9%) of terminations of pregnancy were conducted using Mifepristone and Misoprostol (Table 9). Mifepristone and Misoprostol may be used alone or in combination prior to vacuum aspiration or dilatation and evacuation. Vacuum aspiration/dilatation and curettage was used in 31.4% of all terminations.” [p. 10]
“For terminations of pregnancy conducted before 14 weeks gestation (n=4,228), Mifepristone and Misoprostol was utilised for the majority of cases (64.0%) followed by vacuum aspiration/dilatation and curettage (34.1%) (Table 10). For terminations of pregnancy conducted from 14 weeks onwards (n=419), dilatation and evacuation [were] utilised for the majority of cases (55.4%). (See table 10.)” [p. 10]
Abortion pill abuse
One of the most concerning facts revealed by the report concerns the prevalence of abortion drugs being used far beyond the recommended gestational limit.
When the abortion pill was made available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) in 2013, it was for pregnancies up to nine weeks’ gestation according to TGA regulations. This was increased to ten weeks’ gestation last week by the TGA.
Alarmingly, from the statistics shown in the South Australian report, abortion drugs are being used up to and beyond 14 weeks’ gestation. (see table below). 79 abortions were done at 14 weeks or later with Mifepristone +/- Misoprostol. This is five or more weeks later than recommended by the TGA. 1
It also contravenes SA Health’s own guidelines, which recommend that abortion drugs should not be used past nine weeks or 63 days’ gestation. Even allowing for the possibility that the guidelines have not yet been updated to reflect the TGA’s extension to 10 weeks, this is still far beyond the state government’s own recommendation.
Complications
The report found that complications occurred in 6.2 % of all abortions, with the vast majority of those being related to use of the abortion pill. The main complication recorded was ‘retained products of conception’. This means that the abortion was incomplete, and foetal tissue or clots remained inside the mother’s uterus.
In some cases, the baby would have survived the initial abortion attempt, necessitating a second abortion attempt via either surgical means or a repeat use of the drugs.
… In 2025, preliminary complications resulting from termination of pregnancy were
reported for 290 women (6.2%). The most common complication was retained
products of conception (276 women), which represented 95.2% of all complications
and occurred in 5.9% of all terminations.” [p. 11]“The two most common termination methods in 2025 were Mifepristone and
Misoprostol and vacuum aspiration/dilatation and curettage. Terminations
using these methods resulted in preliminary complication rates of 10.0% and
0.4% respectively (Table 12).”“Of the 279 women with complications reported following a termination of pregnancy
with Mifepristone and Misoprostol, 268 (96.1%) were due to retained products of conception (Table 13).”
Accounting for discrepancies in complication data
Notably, the report also explains how final data with regard to complications may not be available until the following year’s report, as the notification form is logged immediately after the mother’s abortion, when complications may not have eventuated or been detected. Thus the 2025 report includes the final numbers for 2024. Both years show a complication rate of 10% for chemically-induced abortions.
“…The notification form is filled out soon after the termination is complete, and therefore only captures complications known at that point in time. Finalised data for complications relating to terminations of pregnancy, and any late notification of terminations of pregnancy, are presented in the following year’s annual report, after data-linkage. Finalised data relating to termination of pregnancy for the 2024 calendar year are presented in Appendix 2.
“Following ascertainment processes for complications from a termination of pregnancy with Admitted Patient Care data, finalised complications were reported for 302 (6.3%) of women in 2024 (Table 14). A further 112 complications resulting from terminations of pregnancy resulted from the ascertainment process. To improve the capture of complications for terminations of pregnancies in 2024, the ascertainment period was extended to 31 March 2025; this extension resulted in higher number of complications from the ascertainment compared with previously reported.
“The two most common termination methods in 2024 were Mifepristone and Misoprostol and vacuum aspiration and dilatation and curettage. Terminations using these methods resulted in complication rates of 10.0% and 0.4% respectively (Table 15).
“In 2024, of the 288 women with complications reported following a termination of pregnancy with Mifepristone and Misoprostol, 280 (97.2%) were due to retained products of conception (Table 16).”
As can be seen in the figures above, the complication rate for chemical abortions is far higher than that cited by most abortion advocates. For example, a 2017 study as reported in the Australian Journal of General Practice (AJGP), quotes a complication rate of only 5.15% – about half the number recorded in South Australia. The same study showed that 4.8% of the 13,078 women surveyed required surgical intervention after using the abortion pill.
It is worth noting that the 10% complication figure is consistent with that given in a 2025 report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) in the U.S., which found that the complication rate for the abortion pill was almost 11%. This stands in stark contrast to the drug label claim of “less than 0.5%”.
Conclusion
With only two states, South Australia and Western Australia providing their abortion data, we can assume that abortion rates and other statistics apply across the whole country. Yet this report supplies us with more than raw numbers: it points to dangerous abuses of abortion pill provision. We are left asking some serious questions:
Why is SA Health using Mifepristone/Misoprostol outside TGA guidelines?
Is this the cause of the complication rate of 10%, which is double that of the 4.8% rate reported
in the AJGP article?
Why is SA Health promoting a treatment which has greater than 20 times the complication rate of vacuum aspiration/dilation and curettage as their primary method of abortion i.e. 64% versus 34%?
Are abortion-providers in other states also using the abortion pill well past the TGA guidelines?
About the author
Dr Mark Hobart, MBBS, is an Australian GP in the state of Victoria, who was unjustly targeted for his stance against government overreach during the COVID pandemic. When it became known that he was writing exemptions from the mandatory, experimental mRNA vaccines, Dr Hobart’s clinic, located in the Melbourne western suburb of Sunshine, was raided by the authorities and he subsequently was suspended from practising medicine.