More than 50% of abortions in America are caused by abortion drugs, and the Biden-Harris administration has even rubberstamped a dangerous mail-order abortion scheme that puts women’s health at risk. Congress must take steps to rein in the Biden-Harris administration’s reckless abortion drug policy through legislation and oversight.
- Abortions performed via these dangerous drugs are done through a two-pill regimen. The first drug, Mifeprex starves the baby by blocking the pregnancy hormone progesterone. The second drug, misoprostol, then expels the baby from the mother’s body.
- Mifeprex (also called mifepristone, chemical abortion, medication abortion, or the abortion drug) was approved under President Clinton through a fast-track FDA process in 2000, under a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) that required it to be dispensed by the prescribing physician rather than a pharmacy. President Biden has opened the floodgates by allowing pharmacy and mail-order abortion.
Abortion drugs have never been safe for unborn children or their moms
Even before the Biden-Harris mail-order abortion scheme was finalized:
- Abortion drugs have a complication rate four times that of surgical abortion, and as many as one in five women who take the drug will suffer a complication.
- Studies show that 3%-7% of abortion drugs failed in the first trimester, requiring follow-up surgery. Even the abortion drug manufacturer warns that about 2 to 7 out of 100 women taking the pill will need a surgical procedure because the drug failed in the first trimester.
- Complications are passed off to local emergency rooms. At the emergency room abortion drug complications are frequently misdiagnosed and miscoded as due to miscarriage rather than abortion. When miscoded, women are more likely to require multiple hospital admissions before they receive appropriate treatment.
Priority Legislation
At minimum, Congress should pass the SAVE Moms and Babies Act to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for abortion drugs. Congress should also conduct oversight into the FDA’s politicized actions that allowed pharmacy and mail-order distribution of abortion drugs, and into illegal abortion drug distributors.
Why in-person dispensing is important:
- An ultrasound can be performed to rule out ectopic pregnancy which is contraindication for use of the drug – meaning it is a medical reason why the drug should not be used.
- Mom’s blood type can be determined. If her blood is Rh negative, she will need medication to protect her health and that of her future children.
- It prevents predators from obtaining the drug and giving it to victims without their consent.
