For more than 20 years the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recklessly approved and promoted chemical abortions with devestating effect on children and their mothers. As a result, countless women have endured the immense pain and trauma of aborting their children in isolation, and suffered serious health complications. Thankfully, the FDA is finally being held accountable.
With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, four doctors and four national medical associations, recently filed a federal lawsuit against government officials for approving these dangerous chemical abortion drugs.
The problems started back in 2000 when the FDA approved the chemical abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, and mischaracterized pregnancy as an “illness.” The agency also erroneously argued that these drugs provide a “meaningful therapeutic benefit.”
In reality, these pills put women at risk for infection, injury, loss of fertility, depression, and even death. They also have a higher rate of dangerous side effects than surgical abortions. From 2002 to 2015, Emergency Room visits caused by the abortion pill increased by 507%.
“The latest evidence-based science and data confirm that chemical abortion leads to surging rates of emergency room utilization and life-threatening complications, including severe bleeding, infection and the need for surgery,” Director of Life Sciences at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute Dr. Tara Sander Lee told Fox News.
The multi-day process catalyzed by the pills involves severe cramping, contractions, and bleeding until the baby is expelled. Then, the mother must see and dispose of her own child, which inflicts life-long emotional wounds. Thankfully, the FDA’s negligence and the truth about the abortion pills is finally coming to light.
“Pregnancy is not an illness, and chemical abortion drugs don’t provide a therapeutic benefit—they end a baby’s life and they pose serious and life-threatening complications to the mother,” said ADF Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake. “The FDA never had the authority to approve these dangerous drugs for sale. We urge the court to listen to the doctors we represent who are seeking to protect girls and women from the documented dangers of chemical abortion drugs.”
The lawsuit accuses the FDA of failing to protect the health, safety, and welfare of women by disregarding the dangerous side effects of the hormone-blocking drugs and the substantial evidence that chemical abortions cause more serious health complications than surgical abortions.
The FDA even eliminated necessary safeguards for pregnant women seeking chemical abortions. In 2016, it extended the timeframe in which a woman may take abortion drugs from seven weeks’ gestation to 10 weeks’ gestation, making adverse health complications for the mother more likely. It also reduced the number of doctor visits required to take the drugs and removed the requirement for doctors to report health complications from chemical abortions.
Abortion pill use has risen 154% since 2011, and it now accounts for half of all abortions. Women deserve better than dangerous drugs that cause excruciating physical and emotional pain. Hopefully, this lawsuit will not only hold the FDA accountable for its recklessness, but bring and end to the use of these dangerous drugs.
