The Biden administration is reportedly considering declaring a public health emergency over abortion as a response to the Supreme Court‘s overturn of Roe v. Wade. As a former Health and Human Services Department employee and current advocate for life, I know such an executive action—though it will undoubtedly come under legal scrutiny—would be catastrophic for women’s safety and well being, as well as for Americans who strongly oppose funding abortions through their hard-earned taxpayer dollars. It would also allow the administration to circumvent a potential upcoming judicial ruling that could remove dangerous chemical abortion pills from the market. Perhaps most importantly, it would categorize pregnancy—the natural, typically healthy process of growth in early human life—as a disease or disorder.
A recent lawsuit filed on behalf of doctors in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine brings to light the gruesome reality of the chemical abortion pill and the recklessness of its federal approval. In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration rubber-stamped approval for the first drug in the two-step chemical abortion regimen, mifepristone, for use within the first 10 weeks, or 70 days, of pregnancy with minimal scientific scrutiny. More recently, under the Biden administration, the agency authorized the abortion pill for mail order.
The chemical abortion pill is currently responsible for more than half of all abortions in America. Bypassing the medical supervision that is essential to ensure the health of the mother, the use of mail-order abortion pills poses an urgent public health risk to women and their unborn babies.
Today chemical abortion requires no in-person exam or supervision from medical professionals. This in-person supervision is needed to confirm the gestational age of an unborn child to determine if the chemical abortion is legal, much less safe. Medical professionals are also needed to monitor the pill’s severe potential side effects, which include hemorrhaging, infections, and the need for follow-up surgeries. Women who take the pills have a 53 percent increased risk of emergency room visits due to complications compared with women who undergo surgical abortions. In fact, within just the last 15 years, chemical abortion-related emergency room visits have increased more than 500 percent.
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A public health emergency declaration would expand distribution of these pills and eliminate safeguards at the expense of women’s health. It would allow the Biden administration to simply ignore any unfavorable ruling in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine’s lawsuit and to promote the chemical abortion pill even more.
But it wouldn’t stop there. The declaration would also direct emergency federal resources towards advancing the pro-abortion agenda overall and force Americans to fund it against their consciences.
As a former Health and Human Services employee in the Office of the Secretary, I have seen firsthand the intensity and seriousness that comes with a public health emergency declaration. This action is intended only for the direst of circumstances, such as the recent pandemic or the consequences of a terrible hurricane, not for the tyrannical advancement of political agendas. When used under the right circumstances, it can be a powerful tool for the benefit of our great nation.
But an emergency declaration over abortion would do significant harm to our country and the freedoms we enjoy. It would bypass congressional approval to thwart the longstanding Hyde Amendment, funnel taxpayer dollars to abortions and abortion-related travel, and expand chemical abortion access despite existing pro-life state laws. It would permit grants, contracts, and other funding for abortion and approve a public relations initiative to propagandize on the issue. It’d also expand staffing, order the creation of numerous interagency committees all dedicated to expanding abortion, and so much more.
This is the opposite of what the American people want. Polling shows 7 in 10 Americans support significant protections for the unborn, starting when a baby can feel pain at 15 weeks or when a heartbeat can be detected at 6 weeks.
Each year at the annual March for Life, I see the immense love that pro-life Americans have for women and babies in need. I see their fervor for life as they joyfully endure bitter cold and sometimes furious blizzards to take a stand in the greatest human rights movement of our time. Imagine these devoted Americans having to pay for an executive effort promoting dangerous chemical pills that only harm women and their babies.
It is a tragic reality that this administration would consider using precious emergency resources, earned by hardworking Americans, to defend the termination of young lives against the will of the American people. That rigorous action and allocation of taxpayer funds would seek to paint the beauty of pregnancy and the development of an innocent human person as a “disease” threatening the public’s health, rather than as a gift and a right guaranteed by our Constitution.
The science regarding chemical abortion pills is clear. Rather than play politics with women’s health care at the expense of the entire nation, it’s time for this administration to embrace long-lasting, life-affirming options for our women and children in need.
LifeNews Note: Jeanne Mancini is president of March for Life.
