It’s been almost three years since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. It was a cause of joy for many Catholics and Americans of good conscience. Finally, after decades of nationwide legalized abortion, essentially through all 40 weeks of pregnancy and for any reason, unborn children could once again be protected from elective elimination.
Perhaps we rejoiced too soon.
Even though 19 states now have laws offering the unborn significant protection, the total number of abortions in the U.S. have slightly increased. One important reason is the substantial rise in self-managed chemical abortions, which now account for more than 60% of the total figure. The low-cost drugs are procured, with little or even no medical supervision, across state lines through the mail, even in states where this is prohibited.
This is a troubling statistic, not only because of the sheer numbers of children who are losing their lives, but also because of the risk run by their mothers. It is very likely that many of these women have believed the lie from Planned Parenthood, promulgated on its website, that the most common of these chemical abortion pills, mifepristone, is “safer than many other medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra.” They have been sadly misled.
A new report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), titled “The Abortion Pill Harms Women,” reveals the concerning truth. Using data from more than 800,000 chemical abortions performed in the U.S. since 2017, researchers found that more than 10% of mothers suffered adverse side effects such as infection, hemorrhage, and sepsis leading to emergency room visits. Many of these visits included a follow-up surgical abortion to complete the removal of the embryo or fetus. Some of the mothers lost their lives. It’s not like taking Tylenol at all.
The best prevention for the pain and suffering of women undergoing chemical abortion would be a culture that values innocent human life — a culture in which these procedures are unthinkable. We are all, I trust, working on this: at home, among friends, and sometimes even in quiet prayer outside abortion mills. In the meantime, the health of women and girls could be better protected if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reinstated safety protocols around the drug that were abandoned during the Biden administration.
When the FDA first approved mifepristone in 2000, it did so with a whole host of dispensing requirements in the interests of maternal safety. The most important one was that the drug had to be administered in person by a physician who had physically examined the patient, had ruled out ectopic pregnancy, and had accurately determined the gestational age of the embryo. (This often entails the performance of an ultrasound.) Other important requirements were a follow-up visit to make sure that there were no complications, and being available to provide or arrange for emergency follow-up care.
Bowing to political pressure, the FDA removed the in-person physician dispensing requirement in 2022, allowing not only doctors but nurses and physician assistants to prescribe the drug without ever examining the patient. This opened the door to telehealth and mail-order abortion, in which drugs can be prescribed after a pregnant woman or girl simply fills out a questionnaire. Essentially, she is expected to self-manage her own abortion from beginning to end: determine the age of her embryo, rule out ectopic pregnancy, and make sure there are no contraindications that could lead to serious complications or even death. Of course, being all on her own, if she has a significant adverse effect, she will have to figure out when to go to an emergency room and which one.
The dangers inherent in this new Wild West approach to chemical abortion are easily appreciated. The EPPC report puts hard numbers on the malfeasance of the FDA, which used the excuse of the COVID-19 lockdown to deregulate a dangerous drug. To abortion enthusiasts, broadening “access” is always the goal. The safety of mothers and the lives of their children do not figure in their calculations.
A new review by the FDA is urgently needed in the face of these new findings. A 10% complication rate, when the number of procedures tops 650,000 a year and is steadily rising, ensures a steady flow of scared and wounded women and girls into our emergency rooms. There they may find compassionate care for their cramps, hemorrhage, and infection. But the greater damage, of a lost little son or daughter, and the remorse that will be a steady companion for the rest of their lives, is not treatable by anyone but God.
