The Food and Drug Administration is investigating a new website that advertises dangerous, mail-order abortion drugs to women in the United States, according to a new report.
LifeNews reported about the pro-abortion website Aid Access at the end of last week. It was set up by the same abortion activists who run Women on Web, a Netherlands-based abortion group that ships abortion drugs to women across the world – often illegally.
On Sunday, the FDA told The Daily Beast that it is investigating the website because mifepristone, also known as mifeprex, one of two abortion drugs typically used to abort unborn babies, may not be sold over the internet in the U.S.
“Mifeprex is only available to be dispensed in certain health care settings, specifically, clinics, medical offices and hospitals, by or under the supervision of a certified prescriber,” the FDA said. “Mifepristone, including Mifeprex, for termination of pregnancy is not legally available over the Internet.”
These regulations are “necessary to ensure the safe use of mifepristone for termination of pregnancy,” it continued.
Abortion drugs can be deadly to mothers as well as their unborn babies, especially if the mother does not have an ultrasound first. The new website only provides online consultations before mailing the drugs; it does not provide ultrasounds or any medical treatments for complications.
Last week, The Atlantic broke the news about the website, which has been quietly selling abortion drugs to American women for the past six months.
“Handing out deadly drugs through the mail is a disaster waiting to happen. We know that women have died using chemical abortion drugs, and that how far along a woman’s pregnancy is or where it is can be a life or death issue,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, in reaction to the news.
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Rebecca Gomperts, who founded Women on Web and the new Aid Access, said she fills the prescriptions for American women herself. She said she sends the prescriptions to a pharmacy in India, which then ships the drugs to women in the U.S. The drugs are sold for $95 to women up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Gomperts said she is afraid pro-life groups will try to shut down her organization, a fear that prevented her from selling abortion drugs in America before now.
According to the Atlantic:
She launched Aid Access as a separate service in order to mitigate the risk to Women on Web, and she claims that every step of the Aid Access process is legal. (According to Gomperts, the FDA allows people to import medicines for their personal use.) Gomperts launched the service six months ago, but has kept it quiet until now. She estimates she has already sent pills to 600 women.
Her website emphasizes that the abortion drugs are very safe, but it also tells women it is “absolutely necessary” to live within an hour of a hospital “in case you lose too much blood” – an indication that the drugs are not as safe as Gomperts claims.
The website also points to studies showing that one in 10 women who take the abortion drugs will have an incomplete abortion – which can lead to infection or other life-threatening complications.
Just as alarming, the website repeatedly encourages women to lie if they do start experiencing complications. “Say you think you have had a miscarriage,” it tells women, claiming doctors may not be able to tell the difference.
“If you think you might have a complication you should go to a doctor immediately,” the website states. “You do not have to tell the medical staff that you tried to induce an abortion; you can tell them that you had a spontaneous miscarriage. Doctors have the obligation to help in all cases and know how to handle a miscarriage.”
This advice potentially puts women at even greater risk by encouraging them to hide critical information from doctors who are trying to save their lives.
The abortion drugs are responsible for the deaths of dozens of women worldwide, including several in the United States, and have injured at least 1,100 women in the United States, according to 2006 figures from the Food and Drug Administration. A Planned Parenthood study even admitted at least one woman is seriously injured from the abortion pill daily.
To abort an unborn baby, women first take mifepristone, which works by blocking the hormone progesterone, causing the uterine wall to break down and basically suffocating the unborn baby. A second drug, misoprostol, then induces contractions to expel the unborn child’s body.
Pro-life advocates also have expressed strong concerns that the mail-order business could be misused by abusive men who want to force women to abort their unborn babies.
