This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/women-babies-deserve-better/
2025 | Week of May 12 | Radio Transcript #1618
The use of chemical abortions has steadily risen since gaining FDA approval in 2000. In fact, currently, nearly two-thirds of abortions are conducted chemically. The chemical abortion process includes two pills: mifepristone and misoprostol. The combination of these two pills is commonly referred to as the “abortion pill.”
Many women choose a chemical abortion over a surgical abortion because it seems less invasive and more private. Tragically, in some states, women can receive the abortion pill in the mail from a telehealth provider, which means that they never have to enter a doctor’s clinic before taking this potent drug.
Providers often refer to chemical abortions as “medical abortions”—a term designed to imply safety and ease. But that’s not the truth. Most women are unprepared for the excruciating physical pain caused by the pills and the horrifying possibility of seeing the results of their abortion.
For years, the abortion pill has been marketed as safe and effective, but a study[1] published last month by the Ethics and Public Policy Center reveals the truth about chemical abortions. This study explores the adverse effects of mifepristone, the first of the two abortion pills.
Up to the release of this new study, the FDA and mifepristone’s manufacturer relied on 10 studies about the side effects of the pill. In total these studies included approximately 31,000 participants. According to the results of these studies, less than 0.5 percent of participants experienced severe adverse side effects from mifepristone abortions. But this new study analyzed the real-world insurance claims of over 800,000 prescribed mifepristone abortions between 2017 and 2023. That’s 28 times more mifepristone abortions than were included in the FDA’s entire body of research.
According to this new study, eleven percent of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within the 45 days following a mifepristone abortion. While drug labels claim that less than 0.5 percent of women experience severe side effects, this real-world data demonstrates the number of side effects to be at least 22 times higher.
One woman named Patricia shared her story of taking the abortion pill. The pain of the abortion far exceeded the descriptions of her doctor. She shared, “Within one hour I knew that everything the doctor had told me was a lie.” She was also not warned that she would see the results of her abortion. She said, “The shame and guilt that I felt at that moment is impossible to describe.” But her experience was far from over. Three weeks after taking the pills, she required emergency care to finish removing the parts of her deceased baby from her womb that the abortion had left behind.[2]
Another woman named Jessica, learned the truth about abortion after her chemical abortion. She said, “Abortion is taking an innocent life. Abortion is absolutely wrong, no matter the circumstances. If you have an abortion, you will regret it. That regret never leaves.” Tragically, the physical side effects of the chemical abortion are not the worst part of the abortion experience. Far worse is the lasting guilt and regret that so often comes as a result of this life-ending decision.
The Ethics and Public Policy Center’s new study highlights the effects of the abortion pill on women, but we must never forget the effects of abortion on the unborn. While eleven percent of chemical abortions cause severe side effects for the mother, one hundred percent of successful chemical abortions cause the death of an innocent human being.
In a chemical abortion, mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone from the fetus causing nutrients and oxygen to be cut off from the unborn baby. In other words, Mifepristone starves the baby. While tightening FDA regulations may help women avoid adverse side effects, the only way to save the unborn from cruel starvation is to prohibit altogether the dispensing of the abortion pill. The study states, “Women deserve better than the abortion pill,” and we add, so do babies.
Babies deserve the fundamental right to human life. Babies deserve to be loved and protected even before they are born. Babies deserve the right to be carried to term instead of being cruelly starved and ejected from the womb.
Babies deserve better than the abortion pill.
Regardless of the circumstances, women deserve the right to know the very real risks associated with a chemical abortion, and every unborn baby, every image-bearer, deserves the right to be born alive and to experience life.
For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Julaine Appling, reminding you that God, through the Prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
[1] https://eppc.org/stop-harming-women/
[2] https://www.liveaction.org/news/traumatized-wish-never-abortion-pill-planned-parenthood/
Haylee Lawver