March 28, 2024
A recent PBS NewsHour story reminds viewers of the occasional absurdity of the era in which we live – but for two very different reasons. The piece itself focused on Chemical Abortion Pills, no doubt to set up the Supreme Court arguments that occurred on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. But the coverage looked at what is essentially a crime being committed and a diagnosis of an emergency so preposterous it deserves to be dissected.
Let’s look at it – from the news piece (transcribed for the purposes of this article):
Reporter Sarah Varney: In a doctor’s basement in Upstate New York, a makeshift production line is under way.
Anonymous Doctor: I have myself, my sister and some friends who help me with doing the packaging.
Sarah Varney: To ensure this doctor’s safety, “NewsHour” is not showing her face. She sends medication abortion pills mostly to people living in the 14 states where abortion is illegal.
Anonymous Doctor: Texas was the main one. And in the last few months, we’ve been seeing more and more in Georgia and Florida.
So, let’s start there. First, PBS knows what this doctor is doing is illegal – they admit it out loud. If this were opioids, fentanyl, or any number of other drugs that states are trying to limit, the crime would have been just as apparent,
And the states that this doctor admits to targeting limit the trafficking of Chemical Abortion Pills. Consider the laws in:
- Texas: “Mifepristone will remain on the market but approved only for use up to seven weeks of pregnancy, versus 10 weeks, and it cannot be prescribed by telehealth or mailed, which were already illegal in Texas.” Source: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/04/13/texas-fda-abortion-drugs/
- Georgia: “Georgia patients must go through a medical clinic to receive abortion medication. You could face significant legal repercussions if you access a pill without consulting a medical provider first.” Source: https://www.womensclinicofatlanta.com/is-it-legal-to-receive-an-abortion-pill-by-mail-in-georgia/?post_type=blog_post
- Florida: “Florida’s law blocks that and prevents anyone from ordering them online. The law states, “any medications intended to cause abortions must be dispensed in person by a physician and may not be dispensed through the United States Postal Service or by any other courier or shipping service.” Source: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/healthcare/2023/04/14/abortion-pills-florida-mifepristone-misoprostol-what-they-are-how-get-them/7766021001/
Sounds illegal, right? These states have made the rules clear around these pills and how to legally obtain them. Will the United States Department of Justice act to stop this blatantly lawless distribution … don’t hold your breath.
From the Washington Post: “The U.S. Postal Service had asked the Justice Department to say whether it would be legally allowed to deliver pills that could be used for abortion in a state where the procedure is outlawed. The response was a resounding yes.
The Justice Department’s opinion — which was quickly condemned by antiabortion groups — does not change any state or federal laws. It hinges on the department’s interpretation of Section 1461 of the Comstock Act, a law originally passed in 1873 that governs how the Postal Service handles the delivery of contraception and items considered “obscene.”
This is precisely why several states are racing to pass laws, some of which Students for Life Action have helped introduce or support, that would punish those who mail these pills into states with restrictions.
Additionally, when you consider the uproar because Texas wanted to enforce Federal Laws by protecting the southern border, you can’t help but laugh. If you didn’t, you’d cry.
Defending the southern border as a state entity and following federal law is bad. But trafficking pills into states where it’s illegal because of current Biden Administration preference is good?
Let’s get back to the news report:
Sarah Varney: She’s been prescribing mifepristone since the FDA first approved the drug to end early pregnancy 24 years ago. What are your observations as a longtime provider about the safety and efficacy of mifepristone?
Dr. Linda Prine: It’s very effective. I don’t even have medications that are 98 percent to 99 percent effective. Our blood pressure medicines aren’t effective like that. So, it is an unusually effective medication for anything and extremely safe.
Another total falsehood – safe is the incorrect word on nearly every account. The FDA reports numerous side effects:
- The pills cause four times the complications as surgical abortion, with a risk of death that is ten times higher, according to a National Institute of Health Study.
- Between 5 and 7 percent of women who take chemical-abortion pills will need a follow-up surgery to end the pregnancy.
- A separate Australian study noted that up to eight 8 percent of women who took the pills in that country ended up in an emergency room. Similar math is even reported by the abortion industry.
- Chemical Abortion Pills don’t work well later in pregnancy, or when a woman has an ectopic pregnancy , which affects up to two 2 percent of women.
- Half of those experiencing ectopic pregnancy will have no risk factors.
- The FDA also notes that such pills present a risk of death from internal bleeding caused by a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.
- Without proper treatment, women also face an extreme risk of infertility after using Chemical Abortion Pills if they have an Rh-negative blood type. That includes 15 percent of the population. When a pregnant, Rh-negative woman experiences blood contact, such as in birth or abortion, she must urgently receive a shot of Rh immunoglobulin to neutralize deadly antibodies. Without that, miscarriages can bring future heartache as a mother’s body attacks future pregnancy.
And that’s before we even get to the environmental impact caused by flushing human remains down the toilet containing the substances found in Chemical Abortion Pills.
TO LEARN MORE VISIT: WHAT’S IN THE WATER
Did we mention that they also kill preborn babies? Chemical Abortion Pills are many things and safe isn’t one of them.
Going back to the news report:
Sarah Varney: [Professor] Upadhyay says that a small percentage of patients who have medication abortions do visit an emergency room, but mostly to make sure their symptoms are normal.
Ushma Upadhyay, Professor of reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco: What’s important to know is that a visit to an emergency room is not the same as a serious adverse event. People go to an emergency room to get care and to ask questions and to get clinical support.
Yes, emergency rooms: famous for being a place where emergencies usually don’t happen. Sadly, there are very real instances of Emergency Room visits because of Chemical Abortion Pills:
- In 2023, a Nevada woman died because of complications from these drugs – and she visited an emergency room to get help.
- Last month there was a horror story out of Washington State, where a man forced these horrific pills on his pregnant mistress. The woman went to an emergency room, not to ‘ask questions’ but to get badly needed help.
One final clip from the news report, where they discuss why getting rid of Chemical Abortion Pills being mailed could effectively end abortion in the United States (don’t threaten us with a good time):
Sarah Varney: For activists like Kristan Hawkins, that is the aim.
Kristan Hawkins, President, Students for Life of America: You make it illegal for doctors, for abortion vendors, for pharmacies to distribute drugs with the intention to end human life. That is a direct abortion. That is what the pro-life movement seeks to stop.
No one is going to be targeting these precincts.
Sarah Varney: Hawkins runs Students for Life, one of the largest anti-abortion groups in the country.
Kristan Hawkins: Well, state attorneys general need to go after and prosecute those who are legally mailing abortion drugs into their states. Then those who are committing those crimes and violating the federal Comstock Act by shipping chemical abortion pills over state lines, there should be consequences for those who are clearly violating state lines.
All of this is true – and it’s the fight we’re waging at the Federal and State level to ensure that these drugs cannot be dispersed against the wishes of States that choose to protect and defend life.