Former Planned Parenthood manager Abby Johnson, founder of the pro-life organization And Then There Were None, took the stage at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, where she discussed how the FDA’s decision allowing retail pharmacies to dispense abortion drugs will impact women in America.
Johnson took part in the panel, titled ‘Some Tuff Mutha,’ which also included Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America, and Kimberly Fletcher of Moms for America. The panel, beginning at the 7:13 hour mark in the video below, focused on how human dignity is being disrespected in the United States today. Johnson focused on the abortion pill regimen, which involves the administration of two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol.
“Our current administration, Biden and his incredibly partisan FDA has essentially greenlit abortion into the home of every woman across the country,” she said, adding, “We’re talking about women going into pharmacies, requesting these very dangerous chemical abortion drugs, going home without any sort of medical supervision, taking these pills not really knowing what’s going to happen to their bodies, not really understanding what’s going to happen inside of their womb.”
“They’re passing these babies into the toilet, fully formed babies – 12, 14, 16 weeks along in their pregnancy – possibly hemorrhaging in their bathroom, unable to get to an emergency care facility, looking in the toilet and seeing their fully formed baby floating there in the toilet,” she added. “And then these women have to make a decision, right? What do I do with this fully formed baby? What do I do with this child? Do I scoop this child up out of the toilet? Do I take the child to be buried? What do I do with it? Do I flush my child down the toilet?”
She questioned, “I mean, what does this do psychologically to thousands of women who are now going to walk into pharmacies and make this decision out of pure ignorance? What is this going to do to our society? And we already know that abortion already has serious ramifications for women emotionally, physically, and we know it increases the rates of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, suicidal ideation. And now we have created abortion facilities in every single woman’s home in our country.”
After Johnson made her remarks, a journalist claimed she was lying. But was she?
Fetal development
Johnson refers to babies at 12, 14, and 16 weeks as “fully formed.” What does this mean?
Preborn children are fully formed by the end of the third month (12 weeks) of pregnancy, in the sense that all organs and organ systems are present. The baby then only needs time to grow larger and stronger until she is capable of surviving outside the womb.
By week 12, the sex of the baby becomes visible, her nose and lips are “completely formed,” she can make facial expressions, and her intestines can “absorb water and glucose.” She is also able to suck her thumb and feel pain. Her hands, eyes, and feet will react to touch. Like any child, she is still growing into the adult she will one day be.
Babies born as young as 21 weeks have survived with assistance. (This is approximately halfway through a full-term pregnancy.)
Thread/ Abortion pills are prescribed past FDA approved limits and women do flush babies into toilets and the this “independent journalist” obviously can’t do a lick of research.
Thread… https://t.co/wuCkqgIuHi
— Carole Novielli (@CaroleNovielli) March 5, 2023
Abortion pill approval
The abortion pill is only FDA-approved for killing a preborn child in the first 70 days (10 weeks) of pregnancy. Yet, Planned Parenthood openly advertises that it distributes the abortion pill through 11 weeks, and the Orlando Women’s Center abortion facility advertises online a one-hour abortion pill procedure for those three to 14 weeks pregnant. The FDA has not approved a “one-hour” abortion pill protocol.
As previously reported by Live Action News, The abortion chain also says, “Please call now to be seen at one of our offices today in Tampa or Orlando where the pregnancy abortion pills procedure can be started and completed for patients who are 3 to 24 weeks in 24 hours or less in 99% of patients.”
In addition, telemed distribution of the abortion pill that began during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed the abortion industry to kill babies into the second and third trimesters because abortionists were excused from examining women prior to giving them the abortion pill under a “no-test” protocol. The abortion pill has even been administered by men to unsuspecting women — in one case, killing a baby at 26 weeks.
Dangers of the abortion pill without medical supervision
The abortion pill has been found to be four times more dangerous for women than a first-trimester surgical abortion, and that danger grows larger with each week of pregnancy. It carries a high risk of failed abortion, after which the abortion client may be instructed to have a second surgical procedure; otherwise, she may experience an infection from the retained body of her baby and/or pregnancy tissue. In addition, if the client is unknowingly experiencing an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy while taking the abortion pill, the result could be fatal.
This “no-test” protocol for the abortion pill puts women at an even greater risk of complications.
A pro-abortion Gynuity-sponsored study published in 2021 in the journal Contraception revealed that six percent (6%) of 1,157 women who took the abortion pill visited the emergency room or an urgent care center for abortion pill-related complications. Ten of those were serious effects, with five women requiring blood transfusions. Allowing pharmacies to dispense the abortion pill and ignoring the need for women to undergo any exam, scans, or blood tests prior to taking the abortion pill could increase the number of women who die from the abortion pill.
This research mirrors that of abortion pill-related complications in the United Kingdom, where it was found that nearly six percent (6%) of women who took the abortion pill in the UK between June 1, 2019, and May 31, 2021, were treated for complications. In addition, a 2020 report from the abortion giant Marie Stopes Australia also revealed an overall complication rate of 6.37% for women who took the abortion pill that year. Also in the UK, two women died after taking the abortion pill during the pandemic without supervision.
In the U.S., on January 4, 2023, the FDA updated its statistics on the abortion pill, writing, “As of June 30, 2022, there were 28 reports of deaths in patients associated with mifepristone since the product was approved in September 2000, including two cases of ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy located outside the womb, such as in the fallopian tubes) resulting in death; and several fatal cases of severe systemic infection (also called sepsis).”*
I saw my baby
In addition to the physical risks to women, taking the abortion pill can cause emotional trauma for women. As Johnson explained, women may see their deceased baby in the toilet after taking the abortion pill at home or on campus.
One woman named Salome shared her horrific abortion pill story, including details of the physical pain she experienced and the horror of realizing what she had done when she saw her baby. She explained:
After hours of hurting, I finally felt a huge physical relief, and the pain was immediately gone. I managed to get up. When I turned around, I saw the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever seen [in] my entire life. I saw my child.
It was at that moment that it finally sunk in properly. I really had been pregnant. I had been carrying the life I created inside of me until that very moment.
“Right after that,” she said, “I cried and cried for hours. I put my child in a little box and kept saying I was sorry for what I had done. I was weeping and screaming, but nothing could turn back time. I felt like a part of me died. I felt angry. I felt guilty. I felt like my world was coming to an end and that I was the most terrible person on this earth. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. It was the most beautiful thing I ever created, and I destroyed it.”
Likewise, Christina said taking the abortion pill “felt like HELL!” and “was worse than labor with my son.” She continued:
Within two hours of taking the second set of pills I had the baby in the toilet. When I turned around there it was in the sack and everything. I broke open the sack and held the helpless little baby in my hand. I cried and felt like I had just murdered someone so innocent.
Countless women have experienced this trauma after being led to believe their baby was nothing more than tissue.
Johnson concluded by stating, “[The] left will say that this is progress for women but I would say that creating abortion facilities in every woman’s home — I would say that flushing babies down the toilets because of these chemical abortions — I would not say that this is not progress for women. I would say this is regression for women and not something we should be celebrating.”
*THE FDA HAS RECEIVED REPORTS OF SERIOUS ADVERSE EVENTS IN PATIENTS WHO TOOK MIFEPRISTONE. AS OF JUNE 30, 2022, THERE WERE 28 REPORTS OF DEATHS IN PATIENTS ASSOCIATED WITH MIFEPRISTONE SINCE THE PRODUCT WAS APPROVED IN SEPTEMBER 2000, INCLUDING TWO CASES OF ECTOPIC PREGNANCY (A PREGNANCY LOCATED OUTSIDE THE WOMB, SUCH AS IN THE FALLOPIAN TUBES) RESULTING IN DEATH; AND SEVERAL FATAL CASES OF SEVERE SYSTEMIC INFECTION (ALSO CALLED SEPSIS). THE ADVERSE EVENTS CANNOT WITH CERTAINTY BE CAUSALLY ATTRIBUTED TO MIFEPRISTONE BECAUSE OF CONCURRENT USE OF OTHER DRUGS, OTHER MEDICAL OR SURGICAL TREATMENTS, CO-EXISTING MEDICAL CONDITIONS, AND INFORMATION GAPS ABOUT PATIENT HEALTH STATUS AND CLINICAL MANAGEMENT OF THE PATIENT. A SUMMARY REPORT OF ADVERSE EVENTS THAT REFLECTS DATA THROUGH JUNE 30, 2022, IS HERE. THE FDA HAS REVIEWED THIS INFORMATION AND DID NOT IDENTIFY ANY NEW SAFETY SIGNALS. THE FDA INTENDS TO UPDATE THIS SUMMARY REPORT AS APPROPRIATE.
