The FDA just told pro-abortion groups that they are putting women’s lives in danger by providing abortion drugs before they are pregnant.
Politico reports the federal agency spoke out against the new “advanced provision” abortion pill practice last week after Choix, Aid Access and other pro-abortion groups began advertising pills to keep at home in case a woman gets pregnant.
Although the FDA did not mention any enforcement actions, the agency did warn that the abortion drug mifepristone is not approved for advance provision and the groups that are selling it in advance are putting women’s lives at risk, according to the report.
An FDA spokesperson told Politico that the agency is concerned that women are not receiving proper care, such as checking for symptoms of a potentially deadly ectopic pregnancy or determining how far along she is in her pregnancy. The abortion pills do not abort unborn babies as effectively after 10 weeks of pregnancy.
However, both Choix and Aid Access already distribute abortion pills through the mail without seeing the patient for a medical exam or ultrasound; they do not provide direct follow-up care either if the mother suffers a medical emergency.
“It’s not like the people sending the abortion pills care about the women,” responded Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director and founder of the pro-life ministry And Then There Were None.
Johnson, who aborted one of her own unborn children with the abortion pill, said she does not see a big difference between the “advance provision” pills and the mail-order abortions that the Biden administration began allowing last year. Both are dangerous.
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“Does it really make a difference when these women are obtaining the abortion pill, before or after pregnancy?” she said. “They aren’t seeing a doctor either way. They aren’t having ultrasounds. They aren’t verifying they are pregnant. They aren’t verifying gestational date. They have no idea how old these women are. No medical history is verified.”
According to Politico, it is not clear if the FDA has “taken any enforcement actions for misprescribing of mifepristone, but the FDA can enforce its regulations by fining violators, seizing drugs or imposing an injunction.”
Pro-life OB-GYNs have warned these new mail-order abortion practices are killing more unborn babies while putting women and girls at risk of serious complications and abuse.
Choix, a U.S. company, said it does ask purchasers to confirm that they only will use the abortion drugs for themselves. But it is easy enough to lie on forms and, without any direct patient contact, nearly impossible to screen for abuse.
Recently, Kirsty Deakin, of Solihull, England, told GB News that her abusive boyfriend forced her to order abortion pills over the phone when they were in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Choix also promises to sell “advanced” abortion drugs through the mail to girls as young as 15 after a quick questionnaire and text messages with an abortion “provider” (not necessarily a doctor). It charges between $175 and $289.
Responding to the FDA last week, Choix CEO Cindy Adam insisted that their abortion practice is safe.
Here’s more from Politico:
Choix offers “ongoing, supportive” care throughout the process, she said. …
But the FDA is concerned that if patients were to take mifepristone weeks or months after getting a prescription filled, a medical professional may not be able to assess if a pregnancy is intrauterine or ectopic or date pregnancies properly. The drug is only approved through 70 days gestation for abortions.
Adam said Choix screens patients for risk factors for ectopic pregnancy and other contraindications and that patients are told they should seek more care if they become pregnant.
But Pam Whitehead, who runs ProLove Ministries, which provides financial aid and other support to pregnant and parenting families, said Choix does not really care about helping women in need.
“The abortion industry is not in the business of caring about even that one person’s life, so of course they would push back on any restriction or boundary for prescribing,” she said. “You’re putting meds in the hands of individuals who are in crisis and no one can accurately mitigate that risk. The abortion industry believes the benefits (hundreds of millions of dollars) outweigh the risk of injury to women.”
The abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol typically are prescribed together to abort unborn babies up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. The Biden administration began allowing them to be sold through the mail last year without ever seeing a doctor in person.
In England, which began allowing mail-order abortion drugs around the same time, new investigations show a huge increase in ambulance calls and reports of coercion and abuse. In August, a GB News investigation found a 64-percent increase in emergency calls for abortion pill complications.
In the United States, the FDA has linked mifepristone to at least 26 women’s deaths and 4,000 serious complications between 2000 and 2018. However, under President Barack Obama, the FDA stopped requiring that non-fatal complications from mifepristone be reported. So the numbers almost certainly are much higher.
Studies indicate the risks are more common than what abortion activists often claim, with as many as one in 17 women requiring hospital treatment. A recent study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute found that the rate of abortion-related emergency room visits by women taking the abortion drug increased more than 500 percent between 2002 and 2015.
