Facebook Removes, Restores Illegal Self-Abortion Instructions

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 3, 2012   |   7:51PM   |   Washington, DC

The pro-abortion movement is riled up today about an image an international activist posted on her Facebook account instructing women how to dangerously misuse a pill meant for stomach ulcers to induce self-abortions in nations where abortions are illegal.

Rebecca Gomperts of Women on Waves, which ran the abortion boat that once floated outside several pro-life nations offering abortions and the abortion drug, posted the following image on her Facebook page:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facebook temporarily removed the profile picture and Gomperts said she was shocked when she received an email from Facebook informing her that her profile photo had been removed because it violated the website’s terms of use known as the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

Later, Facebook sent her another message apologizing for the removal and claiming the image was removed in error. Gomperts was given permission to reinstate the image but she told pro-abortion bloggers she thinks their protests changed Facebook’s mind.

“It’s actually a sticker we designed to provide information on how women can safely induce an abortion using a medicine called Misoprostol. The text is based on information and research from the World Health Organisation. So it is really quite safe,” Gomperts claimed on one web site.

This isn’t the first time Gomperts has put women’s lives at risk by instructing them to misuse the ulcer drug Cytotec to self-induce an abortion.

Prevented from taking Portuguese women aboard their ship to distribute abortion drugs in 2004, Gomperts’ group appeared on a Portuguese talk show and told women to misuse an over-the-counter ulcer medication to induce an abortion. Appearing on the talk show “SIC 10 horas,” Gomperts, an abortion practitioner who founded the group operating the ship, told women to use the ulcer drug Misoprostol to abort a pregnancy.

However, makers of the drug, also known as Cytotec in the U.S. or Arthrotec in Portugal, have issued warnings saying it is not safe to use in abortions.

In August 2000, more than a month before RU-486 was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Searle, the maker of Cytotec, sent out a strongly worded letter, with the cooperation of the FDA, saying misoprostol “is not approved for the induction of labor or abortion.”

The letter said misuse of the drug can cause adverse effects such as a ruptured uterus, vaginal bleeding and “maternal or fetal death.”

Dr. Randy O’Bannon, director of education and research at the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com that the decision to promote Cytotec abortions was “highly irresponsible.”

“What these people are proposing is not some revolution in women’s health, but something which promotes their radical abortion agenda quite possibly at the expense of women’s health,” O’Bannon explained.

O’Bannon blames operators of the abortion boat for telling women to use the drugs and providing no followup care.

“The Women on Waves people promote it, but where will they be when the women are having their abortions, having complications, dealing with developmental malformations that may have been brought on by the drug,” O’Bannon asked.

Cytotec is one part of the two-pill process that causes an abortion when a woman takes the RU 486 abortion drug. Another drug causes the starvation death of the unborn child while Cytotec expels the dead baby from the mother’s body.