As the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments this week regarding the abortion drug mifepristone, the justices attention will include a focus on decisions made by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2016 and 2021, loosening critical safeguards.
Mifepristone was first approved for sale in 2000, at which time it was administered only through the seventh week of pregnancy; but the FDA, responding to pressure from pro-abortion groups, relaxed its rule—allowing the drug to be used through the tenth week. Another liberalization of the FDA’s policy permitted healthcare providers who are not physicians to prescribe mifepristone.
Further, the updated policy allowed providers to prescribe it through tele-health rather than in-person appointments, and then to ship the drug to the pregnant woman through the mail.
Medication abortions typically use two drugs, mifepristone and its companion drug misoprostol, taken several hours apart. While mifepristone generally stops a pregnancy from progressing, misoprostol makes the uterus cramp, bleed, and empty out—similar to a miscarriage. Today, abortions utilizing medications such as mifepristone and misoprostol are more common than surgical abortions, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States.
Safety concerns
But is this safe medical practice? Abortion advocates will apparently disregard significant medical risks in order to make abortions ever more accessible. The Association of Reproductive Health Physicians has released data claiming that mifepristone is “as safe or safer” than commonly used over-the-counter drugs, and taking it is even “less risky than continuing a pregnancy to term.”
But the non-profit Liberty Counsel, on its website, counters the abortion industry’s claims of safety and explains why the abortion pill is not safe:
According to a report by the Family Research Council (FRC) titled “The Next Abortion Battleground: Chemical Abortion,” even with under-reported figures from 2000-2021, adverse events regarding mifepristone included 1,045 hospitalizations, 603 events needing a blood transfusion, and 413 infections. Similarly, a study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute reported that “emergency room visits following a chemical abortion increased over 500% from 2002 through 2015.”
A Finnish study of 42,600 women titled, “Immediate Complications After Medical Compared With Surgical Termination Of Pregnancy,” found that 20 percent of women who have a chemical abortion experience a negative adverse event. The study also found that women [using a chemical abortion] are four times more likely to suffer severe complications than from surgical abortions, the most common of those were hemorrhage and incomplete abortion.
The FDA’s own label for mifepristone and misoprostol states that one in 25 women who take the abortion drugs will end up in an emergency room.
A statement from the National Association of Pro-Life Nurses expresses their concern:
The removal of abortion drug safety standards could lead to a greater number of complications, including hemorrhage, life-threatening infection, and incomplete abortions.
Life News published a recent article quoting the horror stories of women who had taken the abortion pill:
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“Within one hour I knew that everything the doctor had told me was a lie. I was bleeding so heavily, I believed I was dying. I was passing clots the size of baseballs, and I was in the worst physical pain of my life, worse than childbirth,” she wrote. But the worst pain came when “I looked into the toilet and saw my baby. It had a head, body, and tiny arms and legs,” she wrote. “The shame and guilt … I felt … as I was forced to flush my aborted baby down the toilet, is impossible to describe.”
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“I was on the shower floor SCREAMING, throwing up, bleeding everywhere, the pain was unbearable and unimaginable … and I have had brain surgery!!!” “NOBODY prepared me for the HUGE amount of blood and chunks, the intense excruciating pain, the nausea.” She felt as though she “almost wanted to die,” she recalled. “It was the most traumatic thing I have ever experienced, and I still feel a sense of being numb.”
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“The bleeding and the pain started almost immediately, and it was intense. The pain lasted for two days, and I felt like I was in full-blown labor. I was alone, in one of my bathrooms in my apartment. I was doing drugs just to try to numb the pain.”
Legal action
The FDA’s approval of reduced safeguards in the distribution of mifepristone appears to have been influenced by political pressure from the abortion industry, and not by the customary standards of protecting the common good.
An alliance of pro-life organizations has filed a lawsuit against the FDA and other organizations which support relaxed standards for distribution of the drug. The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM), which upholds and promotes the fundamental principles of Hippocratic medicine (including protection of the vulnerable at the beginning and end of life), is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. The AHM is joined in its legal action by the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), the American College of Pediatricians, the Christian Medical and Dental Association, four individual doctors and, most recently, the National Association of Pro-Life Nurses. The plaintiffs argued that the FDA approved the chemical abortion drug mifepristone without sufficient research into its safety and effects.
Defendants in the case, in addition to the FDA, include Commissioner of Food and Drugs Dr. Robert Califf; Principal Deputy Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock; Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni; the Department of Health and Human Services; and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Arguments on the chemical abortion question began before the Supreme Court today. Early reports suggest that the Court may focus not on the effects of the drug, but on the standing of the physicians who are named in the case. A ruling is expected at the conclusion of the Court’s session in June 2024.
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Given the States Rights slant of the Dobbs Decision, I think that the Court will “punt” on this case and give States the right to ban the drug or allow the drug.as they see fit. This will not please anyone, but will not anger anyone.
On the other hand, the court knows that allowing these drugs anywhere will make the drugs available everywhere.
The Catholic Church should abandon their efforts to use the Federal government to end abortions in the USA. Never, ever did Christ tell His followers to go to Rome and write man-made laws. The number of abortions in the USA increased last year—-man-made laws are not effective. God gave His Followers the Church to change the world. The most powerful tool God gave the Church is the “Word of God”. Our energies and resources should be used to get more people into Church where they can listen to the
‘Word of God”. When people hear the “Word of God” their hearts are changed and they will also believe abortion is evil. The Federal government in Washington, DC is not part of God’s plan.
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How can we expect a favorable decision from the Roberts, Alieto and Thomas court when they have the lowest ratings in history from the public? The three old justices have been found ethically irresponsible for misusing their pledge to the poeple by accepting money from billionaires who have an interest in their decisions. Roberts invented an “ethics” cookbook without a penalty for a violation.
The abortifacient RU-486 has a jaded history. “In the early weeks of pregnancy it is used in conjunction with the synthetic prostaglandin misoprostol”. I ask how is EARLY defined? Embronic or fetal or baby? It is still a person!
Transferring the “law” to extreme state politicians is a patchwork approach and has been a disaster in their Roe decision. Red states, blue states, conservative, liberal weaponizes the cause. Appointments to the court by a president reeks with party loyaty.
NY Times: The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion, is having WIDE-RANGING impacts. About half of states have either already BANNED abortion or indicated that they soon will.
Fallout from the poorly litigated overturn of Roe. 58% of Catholics continue their support abortion, has caused mass lawsuits including OBGYN doctors who are threatenned with death from radical right criminals and litigation by the states that include fines, jailtime and loss of their license. How can we recover to eliminte this dilemma? My thoughts…
First is the cristian approach. Lower the temperature by making it clear that there are exceptions for an abortion. We are not clear that we accept medical decisions to save the mother’s life. Extreme politicans send the wrong message that seems to alienate, not unite. I want to believe that taking that stance, most of the 58% would agree. Then they must also be vocal as they return to Mother Church.
Pro-choice advocates say that we are moving bacwards on the issue. I say that our future and our fate depends on moving forward. How do we convey that message? It may depend on who conveys that message.
Optics: We must not address the issue by aligning with phony and amoral politicians.
Case: President Biden has been castigated for his apparent “position” of abortion-on-demand. I want to ask him, just look into the beautiful eyes of your grandchildren and tell me which one would have aborted? I want to believe this Catholic, (not with our words) man would not support convenience abortions. Former president trump is a whole ‘nother issue. He expounds that he is pro-life, (now). Impossible to believe on Catholics for Catholics: “Catholic Leaders Stand With Trump At Mar-a-Lago. The Catholic Vote will decide the 2024 Elections. President Donald Trump is the ONLY option for Catholics of GOOD CONSCIENCE! Thanks to the thousands who participated online in this Rosary Rally at Mar-a-Lago”. How duplicitus!
We must continue our prayers to Jesus that he will save our faith and our democracy.
Mr. Morgan, I don’t think court decisions are based upon a justice’s public ratings.
Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was held in the highest public esteem and he totally failed to protect vulnerable Americans from eugenic sterilizations. He got it 100% wrong in Buck v. Bell. And so did much of America during that era.
Thanks for the MSNBC talking points. You’re sadly mistaken, but totally predictable.
Morgan!
It sounds as though you oppose the killing of innocent children within their mothers’ wombs.
And yet you support Democrats? And you call Biden a “Catholic man” and say you “would like to believe he wouldn’t support convenient abortions”?
You need to brush up on the history of your party and its love affair with death.
Abortion in America is like this: Imagine that, every day for the past fifty-one years, an ocean liner the size of the Titanic, loaded with innocent children, sinks without a trace.
No survivors.
Every day.
For fifty-one years.
That’s what your “Catholic man” has worked ceaselessly to bring about in America.
And when you tally the death toll around the world, it’s many times that number.
In fact, it’s much more than a billion dead children throughout the world — bright, sweet, beautiful children — over the past fifty-one years.
It’s as if one of the three most populous countries in world were wiped out.
Morgan, it’s because of Catholics like you who vote Democratic that I call abortion the eighth sacrament of the American Catholic Church.
If Catholics voted according to the Church’s teachings in just one national election, pro-death candidates would be wiped out. And abortion would be a non-issue thereafter.
But you won’t.
I leave you with this, Morgan:
When the time comes for America to be held responsible for this horrific, unprecedented holocaust, don’t be surprised at what takes place.
brineyman. I am not a Democrat and I do not support “convenient” abortions! As with certain other contributors here, I am concerned with the vitriol and misrepresentations of my comments. Let me offer my facts…
SCOTUS: My description of the unethical conduct by justices Thomas, Alito and Roberts is verified. And Roberts did not address his unethical remedy.
Mifepristone and Misoprostol: Abortion takes the life of an innocent soul. I said It is still a person.
Dobbs – National Constitution Center: In Dobbs, the Supreme Court reviewed the constitutionality of Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act—a law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for medical emergencies and fetal abnormalities. The Dobbs decision is correct. However, transferring the responsibility to the states does cause a confusing “patch work” result. NCC: half of states have either already BANNED abortion or indicated that they soon will. 58% of Catholics continue their support abortion.
Minus the branding, I appreciate your comments.
Morgan: Still a strong Catholic.
God bless.
convenient abortions”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5499222/
Personhood status of the human zygote, embryo, fetus – PMC
The relationship between The Spirit Of The Law and The Spirit Of The Constitution in regards to The Sanctity and Dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death, affirms that the intentional destruction of an innocent beloved son or daughter residing in their mother’s womb, which is never a “victimless “ crime , and in fact, establishes “a risk of harm”, to all future generations, stands in direct conflict with both The Spirit Of The Law and The Spirit Of The Constitution in regards to first and foremost, securing our inherent, unalienable Right to Life, upon which our inherent Right to Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness depends, and upon which “forming a more perfect Union, establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general Welfare, and securing the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”, is necessary to secure, in every State of The United States Of America, and on every point in Time and Space in The Universe that God Created.
Woe to us; you and I have been you and I from the moment of our conception. It is simply not possible for the son or daughter of human persons to not be, in essence, a human person.