by Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director
If a vaccine were to kill 24 people and injure 3,000 more, would that vaccine remain available?
What about an abortion drug?
Despite the recognized danger of the drug Mifeprex (mifepristone), the Biden Administration has lifted safety restrictions on the abortion pill, erasing medically-necessary precautions that have been in place since FDA approval in 2000.
By tossing out these needed safeguards, the administration and the abortion industry are playing Russian roulette with women’s lives, handing them “a loaded gun” in the form of chemical abortion.
According to a statement released by the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), which represents approximately 7,000 women’s healthcare practitioners, the abortion pill has led to at least 24 deaths and 3,000 injuries, with 500 more women at risk of dying had they not reached emergency medical care in time.
Since the FDA stopped collecting data on the adverse effects of the drug in 2016, the complication rate could be much higher. Death due to abortion often goes unreported, so it is difficult to determine the true fatality rate of the drug.
Earlier this month, a 23-year-old Argentinian woman died from a chemical abortion after it was made legal in her country.
Now, in our country, the most pro-abortion President in history jeopardizes the lives of unsuspecting young women as they are misled into believing they can safely abort at home.
No longer will an in-person exam be required to confirm the gestational age of the child or to rule out an ectopic pregnancy or multiple babies or other complicating conditions or to determine if a woman is RH negative and in need of a Rhogam injection.
Rather, the potent drugs can be delivered to a mailbox or pharmacy simply through a tele-health visit with an abortion provider. Planned Parenthood Keystone is already enthusiastically promoting this “service” on their website.
The two-pill abortion procedure is only approved up through 10 weeks, but many young women are frequently uncertain as to how far along they are. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology estimates that about 50% of women are wrong about their gestational age when relying on recall of their last cycle, which is why determining the baby’s age by ultrasound had been standard practice in the past. Taking the drugs past 10 weeks significantly increases the chance of complications.
But the abortion drug is dangerous earlier in pregnancy too. AAPLOG notes, “A Finnish study involving nearly 50,000 women who had abortions at 9 weeks or less showed that immediate adverse events were four times more likely with chemical abortion than surgical.”
That is why the safety regulations, known as REMs (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation), were enacted in the first place. There is significant risk of hemorrhaging, infection, incomplete abortion, and more that can threaten a young woman’s life.
“This requirement is not restrictive-it is protective,” states AAPLOG.
And while there is a definite physical risk to women, there is also a tremendous emotional and psychological impact. Young women are left alone to endure hours of severe cramping and bleeding to deliver and dispose of a dead child.
It’s hard to understand that anyone could possibly think such trauma is part of empowering women. Rather than given authentic support at a difficult moment, women are given a pill to kill, one that might kill them as well as their baby.
But under the misleading title of “reproductive justice,” that’s a risk the Biden Administration is willing to take.
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