The blind eye toward women’s health with which abortion advocates operate is on full display as they remain focused on how to preserve access to abortion drugs in the face of recent court rulings on chemical abortion drugs.
A federal judge in Texas suspending the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone from 2000 April 7. Following that a federal appeals court issued a stay on the suspension but halted mail-order abortion drugs while also reinstating other health and safety measures. Then the Supreme Court issued a 5-day stay on the original suspension of mifepristone.
Meanwhile, pro-life and pregnancy help advocates continued to sound the alarm on the potential harms of these drugs.
As Pregnancy Help News (PHN) reported, other important elements of the 5th Circuit ruling are to assure the standard of three in-person visits, including requiring an ultrasound to determine gestational age and screen for ectopic pregnancy, and moving the fetal age limit for dispensing the abortion pill from 10 weeks back to seven weeks.
Instead of seeing what protections will benefit women’s health, the abortion industry is increasing efforts to find workarounds, fully supported by pro-abortion politicians and media outlets doubling as abortion advocates.
Mifepristone is the first of two-drugs in the chemical abortion process. Mifepristone blocks the progesterone produced in a pregnant woman’s body, starving the unborn child of necessary nutrients. The second drug, misoprostol, taken a day or so after the mifepristone, causes the mom to go into labor and deliver her deceased baby.
Pro-life supporters and pregnancy help advocates have long cautioned against the risks associated with chemical abortion pills and argued for women’s safety related to their use. Abortion proponents continue to push for unfettered access, whether licit or not.
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
In a press conference held by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) following U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruling, the legal non-profit representing the coalition of pro-life medical groups and individual physicians in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration the media again displayed its pro-abortion bias as questions veered off of the 5th Circuit’s ruling preserving mifepristone access but reinstating safety protocols onto potential next steps for how abortion access could move forward anyway should the original judge's restriction of mifepristone stand.
The Texas Tribune asked about the use of misoprostol only in chemical abortions. The New York Times asked three times about the legality of the use of misoprostol.
Planned Parenthood already plans for the use of misoprostol alone with the impending removal of mifepristone. Media outlets have picked up the message and are reporting on this alternative, less effective method in lockstep.
PHN spoke with ADF legal counsel Erica Steinmiller-Perdomo about the current cases and the dangers of chemical abortion.
Steinmiller-Perdomo explained that misoprostol is being used off label from what the FDA had originally granted its approval, which was for use in treating stomach ulcers. The FDA has never approved misoprostol alone to be used for abortion. She remarked on the politics surrounding regulation of the abortion pill as well.
“What’s really clear by the Biden’s administration’s rhetoric is that this administration and the FDA are politically motivated,” Steinmiller-Perdomo said. “They are not following the science and they are shirking their responsibility to keep the American public - especially women and girls in this case - free from the dangers of dangerous chemicals.”
“If the Texas court’s ruling, which halts the use of mifepristone, goes into effect, I think that’s going to be a great outcome for women and hopefully they will not continue to be pressured to use dangerous drugs off label or drugs that are not approved,” she added.
Christa Brown, Senior Director of Medical Impact for Heartbeat International, wrote an article addressing just how the misoprostol-only regimen would harm women, addressing the political aspect as well.
“While the majority of all chemical abortions are still a mifepristone/misoprostol combination, a handful of abortion extremists are skipping mifepristone and mailing misoprostol alone for at-home abortions,” Brown wrote.
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help in the U.S. and the world.
Notably the abortion lobby continues to claim that abortion is healthcare.
“Some among those who push this false narrative abandon actual sensible care for patients as extreme measures disguised as ‘abortion care’ are inflicted on women’s bodies to expand access to abortion at any cost,” noted Brown.
“Chemical abortion is the abortion mode du jour as it provides the most profit with the least responsibility,” she added. “And as demonstrated by this latest maneuver (pushing chemical abortion with only misoprostol) it is most effective in circumventing local laws - and medical ethics.”
Eliminating the first drug is not a process approved by the FDA for abortion.
Brown wrote in another article regarding misoprostol, “The single-drug regimen is less effective to end a pregnancy, often requiring repeated doses, and often causes additional side effects.”
“It takes a lot to empty the uterus in any circumstance,” Brown said. “Heading straight to this step with a thriving, viable pregnancy is especially egregious.”
Brown cautions also that pain is a primary side effect of any abortion and especially for those conducted with misoprostol only. Due to the decreased effectiveness of misoprostol-only abortion, repeated dosing of the drug is often necessary, and the woman faces hours, possibly days of pain.
As with chemical abortions using mifepristone, if the pregnancy has implanted outside the uterus in a misoprostol-only abortion, misoprostol alone is insufficient to end the pregnancy.
Dr. George Delgado, medical director of Culture of Life Family Health Care in Escondido, Calif., and medical advisor to the Abortion Pill Rescue Network, commented on the use of misoprostol-only abortions.
“Its incomplete abortion rate is much higher than the combined mifepristone-misoprostol protocol,” he said. “Also, there is a two-to-four-fold increase in birth defects in preborn babies exposed to misoprostol.”
A wrench has been thrown in the Biden administration’s plan to subvert the reversal of Roe v. Wade and state pro-life laws by creating a nationwide abortion drug market, ADF attorneys noted of the recent court rulings.
Abortion proponents continue to push for expanded chemical abortion nonetheless, and the question of whether their efforts will be met with additional legal battles was raised by the media during the ADF press conference.
Delgado, a plaintiff named in the AHM v. FDA case stated, “I do anticipate litigation if misoprostol is adopted as a common means of chemical abortion.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News. This article has been updated for clarification on the FDA's approval of misoprostol.
