The abortion pill is dangerous for women, and new legislation introduced by an Indiana congresswoman would ensure that women are made aware of the risks.
Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) introduced the Safeguarding Women’s and Children’s Health Act of 2022 on February 9 to improve tracking of the adverse side effects associated with the abortion pill. The bill is designed to fill a gap in current reporting requirements. According to the bill, only 28 states currently require abortion providers to report complications and there are rarely penalties for noncompliance. This bill would require that deaths and adverse side effects related to abortion drugs are reported to both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the drug manufacturer.
The legislation has received the support of several pro-life groups including the Susan B. Anthony List, the Family Research Council, National Right to Life, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“As chemical abortions become more frequent, American women need to know the risks of abortion pills such as mifepristone. While the Biden Administration’s FDA recklessly removes guardrails on chemical abortion drug prescribing, too many of the facts are unknown. Women who take abortion drugs are ending up in emergency rooms – or worse,” said Congresswoman Walorski.
She continued, “Dangerous abortion pill side effects are killing women and their children. We can’t allow deadly complications to fly under the radar. The American people need to know the truth. The Safeguarding Women’s and Children’s Health Act will strengthen transparency at the FDA and expose the true cost of these drugs.”
Chemical abortion is a two-step process that involves taking two drugs over the course of several days. The first drug is mifepristone, which kills the preborn child by blocking progesterone, thereby depriving the baby of nutrients. The second drug is misoprostol, which causes strong contractions, causing the mother to expel her dead child.
The two drugs can be taken several days apart. In that time frame, some mothers may change their minds. After taking the first pill in the series, women may receive progesterone injections and/or pills from a physician as soon as possible in an attempt to reverse the effects of mifepristone.
The abortion pill carries tremendous risks for pregnant women. Although marketed as safe and effective, the abortion pill is actually quite dangerous — four times more dangerous for women than first-trimester surgical abortions. Dangerously, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shift to telehealth, at-home abortion has become more popular.
Despite the abortion industry’s claim that the abortion pill is “safer than Tylenol,” these at-home abortions are extremely risky for women. Because of a “no-test” abortion pill protocol, a woman could be experiencing an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy. When she takes the abortion pill, she could hemorrhage at home alone, which could be fatal. She could also be further along in her pregnancy than she realizes since there is no ultrasound or blood testing done beforehand, putting her at risk of incomplete abortion and infection.
READ: Five abortion pill dangers every woman should know
As of December 2021, the abortion pill can now be sold online as the result of changes to the FDA’s safety requirements under the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation System. Previously, the abortion pill could only be dispensed in a facility where medical professionals could evaluate how far along the woman is in her pregnancy and rule out ectopic pregnancy. That is no longer the case. And as a result of this change, virtual abortion pill dispensaries, which operate with little to no oversight, have been expanding their business.
Removing the requirement for medical oversight creates a host of issues. A recent Telabortion study revealed that six percent of participants made unplanned visits to emergency rooms or urgent care centers for reasons related to the abortion pill, and ten serious adverse events occurred, including five blood transfusions (0.4%).
Commenting on the new legislation, Mary Szoch, Director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council, noted that abortion advocates are notoriously dishonest about the real dangers of chemical abortion.
She stated, “Our own federal government does little to keep track of the health complications related to chemical abortion, with only states and independent researchers documenting the dangers of this drug. Thanks to the leadership of Rep. Walorski we have the opportunity to collect more complete and transparent data on just how abortion drugs negatively impact the women who take them.”
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