Atlanta ? Women who use abortion pills rather than the more common surgical method seem to face no greater risk of tubal pregnancy or miscarriage in later pregnancies, according to a new study.

The federally funded research – based on nearly 12,000 Danish women – is considered the best study to date of the effect of this newer abortion method on subsequent pregnancies.

The U.S. and Danish researchers studied medical abortions. Generally, it involves a woman ending a pregnancy by taking one tablet of mifespristone – formerly known as RU-486 – followed by about four misoprostol pills a day or two later. The mifepristone destabilize the connecting tissue between an embryo and the uterus, and the misoprostol causes the uterus to expel the embryo.