Abortion advocates are pressuring pregnant women in South America who may be infected with the Zika virus to abort their unborn babies with dangerous, mail-order abortion drugs.
The pro-abortion group Women on Waves is known for sailing and docking its “abortion boat” outside of pro-life countries and then offering abortions to women in violation of their countries’ protective, life-affirming laws. The group recently began targeting South American countries where an outbreak of the Zika virus appears to be causing brain disorders in babies.
The mosquito-borne virus, a growing concern in South America, is believed to be linked to microcephaly, a neurological disorder where a baby’s head is significantly smaller and the brain is abnormally developed, according to the Mayo Clinic. The condition is not typically fatal, but it can cause health problems throughout the baby’s life.
The World Health Organization reports that the relationship between virus and microcephaly has not been confirmed yet but is highly suspected. Several South American countries report that the number of babies born with the disorder has been increasing astronomically with the spread of the virus. “Between October 2015 and January this year medics in [Brazil] have registered almost 4,000 cases of microcephaly in newborns, compared to 163 in a normal year,” according to The Pool.
Women on Waves announced this week that it will mail free chemical abortion drugs to pregnant women who have the virus and are less than nine weeks pregnant. To receive the abortion drug, women must fill out an online consultation form.
The abortion group is urging women in Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Guadeloupe, Paraguay, Venezuela, Argentina, Surinam, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Haiti, Dominican Republic to apply quickly because the pills can take up to five weeks to ship, according to the Independent.
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The abortion group’s actions are extremely troubling for multiple reasons. One of the problems with Zika is that it is difficult to diagnose. Health authorities say people who are infected do not necessarily show symptoms of the virus; and when they do, their symptoms can look like other illnesses. Similarly, conditions like microcephaly often are not diagnosed until women are 20 weeks pregnant or later. By offering abortions up to nine weeks, the Women on Waves group fails to mention that there is very little way of knowing at that point if the unborn baby or mother really are infected. Women could very likely be aborting healthy unborn babies and putting their own lives at risk. It also should be noted that no matter whether an unborn baby is healthy or sick, the baby deserves a right to life.
Another problem is with the drug itself. Chemical abortions can be deadly to the woman as well as her unborn child. Without a doctor’s visit or medical supervision (neither of which Women on Waves appears to be providing with the free, mail-order abortion drugs), more lives could be in jeopardy. Although Women on Waves says the abortion pill is safe, evidence from the United States indicates that’s not the case. In America, where emergency medical care often is readily available, the Food and Drug Administration documented at least 14 women’s deaths and 2,207 injuries from abortion drugs in the past 12 years, LifeNews previously reported.
And though the group says it offers the deadly drug to women who are fewer than nine weeks pregnant, it seems highly unlikely that it is being used only in this short time-span. Due to the shipping time (one to five weeks) plus the fact that women often do not know they are pregnant until several weeks into the pregnancy, women could be taking the drug much later in their pregnancies. The FDA recommends the chemical abortion drug RU-486 be taken only up to the first nine weeks of pregnancy.
This is not the first time Women on Waves has tried this type of stunt. In 2015, LifeNews reported the group was using drones to deliver abortion drugs to Ireland and Poland in violation of the countries’ pro-life laws protecting unborn babies from abortion.
Health officials in many South American countries are asking women to refrain from getting pregnant while they attempt to curb the spread of the virus, Wired reports. But abortion activists have their own solution: legalize abortion. LifeNews reported last week that abortion groups are targeting South American countries where abortion is largely illegal and using the health crisis to renew the push to legalize abortion.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization and others are involved in working to curb the spread of the virus. No vaccine or cure has been developed yet.
