Ending the Abortion Pill Crisis

The abortion pill crisis would come to a screeching halt if attention were given to the facts and decisive action were taken. Current analysis, if taken seriously, demands swift and intentional abolishment of the deadly regimen, rather than the proposed (anti-)baby steps toward reinstatement of previous regulations.

A recent study of the abortion pill’s dangerous effects on the women using it has turned a spotlight on the previously hidden rate of “adverse events”—that is, the serious medical consequences suffered by pregnant mothers who take this deadly drug combo.

The research, compiled by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, revealed that this two-drug abortion pill regimen is 22 times more hazardous than the FDA had previously acknowledged.

This news was promptly met with calls for the FDA to take two actions. One, review the safety label on the pill packaging, and two, reinstate the pre-COVID regulations on distribution and medical oversight that went along with the receipt and use of the abortion pill. These safeguards required an in-person doctor’s appointment to obtain the pills, and in most cases, prevented mail-order distribution.

Note to Marty Makary, United States Commissioner of Food and Drugs: Changing the warning label on the abortion pill is not the solution, nor is the “win for life” that some pro-life advocates have implied.

As long as we are calling out cabinet members, if Robert Kennedy Jr. truly wants to Make America Healthy Again, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services needs to yank this toxic regimen from the market.

Reinstating the Clinton-era protections, as originally applied to RU-486, is pointless. Even restoring the original regulations on using mifepristone and misoprostol to end the life of a baby in the womb would be an impotent gesture.

The abortion pill was created to end the life of a pre-born child, and it does so with chilling efficiency. How could such a drug ever be labeled as “safe”? Even when a woman can walk away complication-free, her baby will not be so lucky.

The inventor of this deadly pill, Etienne-Emile Baulieu, said that the premise for his creation of the deadly drug was that he always wanted to do something to help women. As a man raised in a household without a father figure, Baulieu could have been unduly influenced by the discussions he heard, but we suspect his motivation for creating the abortion pill was far more dubious. It seems that even when the company for which he worked backed away from this abortion pill, Baulieu persisted, becoming the chief advocate for the abortion pill.

Whether Baulieu’s childhood experiences in a household of women affected him in a way that led to his commitment to chemical abortion is not known to us. What is clear is, as a scientist, he had a decision to make, and he chose to become the father of one of the deadliest pills ever to be manufactured.

Today, it is the preborn child who is the primary victim of the success of Baulieu’s creation.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, over 60 percent of abortions in the United States now involve the abortion pill. Planned Parenthood estimates that the number is close to 70 percent.

When it comes to the abortion pill, the crisis is three-sided and must be addressed from all sides. Leaving even one front unchecked will merely prolong the crisis and add to the lives broken by the evil creation.

Removing the pills from the market and illegalizing their use as DIY abortifacients will not stop the flood of black-market abortion drugs flooding into the US from foreign countries.

American Life League reported in the fall of 2024 that hundreds of thousands of illegal abortion pills enter the country every year, unregulated and untraceable. These pills, dubbed the Abortion Pill Drug Cartel, are largely shipped out of Mexico and only target states where abortion restrictions are in place. The group requires little to no details about the individual requesting the pills and will send abortion pills to the requester who opens a Proton email account and emails the volunteer with the request.

Most of the time, the pills are sent free of charge and often arrive in plastic wrap or zip lock baggies. The pills are unreported and untraceable.

Guttmacher reports that now 14% of all abortions come from these black-market pills, reaching over 80% in states where abortion restrictions are in place.

Suppose the FDA redacts the abortion pill regimen, and our nation’s border and mail system clean up the illegal trafficking of these abortion pills, we are still left with the third and arguable most important side of this issue: Why do women want abortion pills in the first place?

There are manifold psychological, spiritual, and environmental factors that might play into a woman’s decision to obtain these deadly pills. The bottom line is that we have been conditioned by our society to believe abortion pills are better than raising an unwanted baby.

As of May 2024, an overwhelming 85 percent of Americans believed that abortion was okay in all or some cases. This is undoubtedly the result of decades of incrementalism in the shadow of Roe v. Wade.

Abortion restrictions with baseless mile markers like 16 weeks or 20 weeks create a false sense that at that time, a human life suddenly has value. There is no difference between the value and human dignity of a baby at 32 weeks, 8 weeks, or the moment of conception.

Abortion, whichever way you slice it, is always the intentional taking of an innocent life. As Americans, we classify that as homicide.

The third and most critical consideration is the passage of a federal Personhood Amendment that institutes the total protection of the human person, from the moment of creation to natural death.

A society cannot be legislated into changing its view on the value and dignity of the human person. But federal action on the part of the FDA, HHS, US Border Patrol, United States Post Office, and the legislature can take the necessary actions to end the abortion pill crisis. And they should.