A positive pregnancy test may send you running to order the abortion pill. But hold on. For your safety – even if you definitely plan to take the abortion pill – the abortion clinic should not be your first call. While a home pregnancy test indicates your body is producing the pregnancy hormone HCG, it does not – it cannot – tell you that your pregnancy is located in the right place; and it is dangerous to take the abortion pill with an ectopic pregnancy.

“But where else would a pregnancy be located?” you wonder to yourself. Sometimes the pregnancy does not implant in the uterus – it implants somewhere else. Any time a fertilized egg implants outside the main cavity of the uterus, it is an ectopic pregnancy. Most commonly, when a pregnancy is ectopic, it is located in the fallopian tubes. That’s one of the reasons it is sometimes called a “tubal pregnancy.”

Before we go into taking the danger of taking the abortion pill with an ectopic pregnancy, let’s do a quick overview of how the abortion pill works. The abortion pill is FDA approved for pregnancies up to 10 weeks gestation. It is actually a combination of two medications. The first, mifepristone, blocks the hormone progesterone. The pregnancy requires progesterone, and, without it, the lining of the uterus breaks down and the pregnancy cannot continue.

Then, 24-48 hours after the first pill is taken, a second medication, misoprostol, is taken. This medication causes uterine cramping and heavy bleeding to expel the pregnancy. This passing of the pregnancy often includes clots and tissue loss.