A 23-year-old woman has died following a legal abortion in Argentina, becoming the first recorded maternal death from abortion since it was legalized through 14 weeks on December 30, 2020. Notably, she was a pro-abortion leader.
María del Valle González López went to the Arturo Illia hospital in La Paz on April 7 for an abortion, according to Argentine newspaper Clarín. She died on April 11, and the results of an autopsy should be made known at an undetermined future date. An investigation into her death was opened by the Santa Rosa Prosecutor’s Office.
“[At the hospital] she was prescribed a medication — presumably misoprostol — and on Friday she began to feel ill,” reported Clarín. “She was referred to the main healthcare facility in the eastern area of Mendoza, Perrupato Hospital, where they diagnosed a general infection that may have caused her death.”
Misoprostol is the second drug commonly given in the two-drug abortion pill protocol. It acts to cause contractions that expel the baby from the uterus. During a chemical abortion, the drug mifepristone is given first to deprive the baby of nutrients.
READ: Father pleads guilty in death of third-trimester baby born alive as a result of abortion drugs
It is not clear if María was prescribed misoprostol alone or in combination with mifepristone, sometimes known as RU-486, or the “abortion pill,” from which at least 24 women have died and more than 4,000 have reported complications in the U.S. Complications of misoprostol can include incomplete abortion, hemorrhaging, infection, and death.
“María del Valle was 23 years old and had her whole life in front of her,” tweeted pro-life activist Guadalupe Batallán. “She was a student and had become president of Radical Youth in Mendoza. She had a legal abortion on Wednesday and by the weekend she was already dead. I’m telling you because the feminists remain silent. #MurioPorAbortoLegal.”
Some like Batallán pointed to the lack of attention her death is receiving, especially from pro-abortion groups. When women have died in nations where abortion is illegal — including previously in Argentina — the media has been quick to exploit the tragedy. However, the media has been mostly silent about María’s death, because it doesn’t fit the pro-abortion narrative that abortion is supposed to be good for women.
“If María had died from a clandestine (illegal at the time) abortion, feminists would be tearing the whole city apart, but since María died from a legal abortion and that doesn’t suit (their cause), it’s scrubbed,” said pro-life activist Belén Lombardi.
The news of the tragic deaths of María and her baby broke as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it plans to “exercise enforcement discretion” in the dispensing of the abortion pill by mail for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. The FDA had placed a rule known as Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) on the abortion pill due to the drug’s high risk to women’s health, and required that abortionists dispense the abortion pill to women in person. However, despite studies showing that the abortion pill is four times more dangerous than first-trimester surgical abortion to women, the Biden Administration will lift the safety rule, putting women at risk.
Pro-abortion groups including Planned Parenthood have long pressured Argentina to legalize abortion, and President Alberto Fernández successfully pushed through the legalization, though 60% of Argentinians opposed it.
Editor’s Note 4/16/21: “The FDA has received reports of serious adverse events in women who took Mifeprex. As of December 31, 2018, there were reports of 24 deaths of women associated with Mifeprex since the product was approved in September 2000, including two cases of ectopic pregnancy resulting in death; and several cases of severe systemic infection (also called sepsis), including some that were fatal.
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 December 31, 2018 is here.” https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/questions-and-answers-mifeprex
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