The Patriot Post® · Banning the Abortion Pill?

In a battle that was already long and arduous, the overturning of Roe v. Wade has only intensified it. With the abortion industry’s highly effective and pervasive weapon, Mifepristone, the war on life is not just at the government or state level, or at an abortion or pregnancy clinic, but in homes across the country. Obviously, from a mind and heart perspective, that has always been the case, but we didn’t have to deal with life-killing drugs being delivered directly to your door in defiance of whatever the state law happens to be. This is a whole new legal fight, and unlike other prescription drugs, it has gone almost completely unregulated.

Hence, Texas, Florida, and other red states are suing to impose restrictions on the unregulated abortion pill. Unfortunately, these are being met with dismissals from the Department of Justice. For the second time this week, the DOJ has filed a motion to dismiss a case against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), arguing that an FDA review of the chemical abortion pill is already underway (allegedly), which allows dismissal since people can sue later.

SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser called it a “slap in the face” to pro-life states. She warned of possible problems in the midterms since Republican voters overwhelmingly disapprove of allowing mail-order abortion drugs and back pro-life policies like the Hyde Amendment, according to a nationwide survey conducted by Cygnal.

“It’s a disgrace that pro-life states like Florida and Texas are having to fight the Trump-Vance administration in court to uphold their laws and that extremists like Gavin Newsom are being allowed to dictate their policy,” the SBA president admonished in a press release.

This didn’t happen overnight; Planned Parenthood has been working on this for decades. The pro-life movement was so focused on the big, shiny object of getting Roe knocked down that some overlooked the slow, silent advance of a small, but far more dangerous enemy.

Mifepristone was introduced in 2000 under the Clinton administration, and it faced immediate controversy. It was designed to imitate the French drug, RU-486, which induces a miscarriage. Neither of these drugs is a contraceptive; they destroy a viable pregnancy. Sadly, that wasn’t the reason for the controversy. Rather, it was due to the range of side effects caused by the drug, which include internal hemorrhaging, infections, sepsis, and other life-threatening conditions in the mother.

The Clinton FDA approved the pill, but with many restrictions attached due to the risks it presents. The drug had to be prescribed by a doctor, and that doctor had to see the patient before prescribing it. The doctor then had to dispense it in person and follow up with the patient afterwards. The FDA had to keep track of any adverse health effects and report them. They also had to add a “black box” warning label on the prescription to alert women of the dangerous side effects.

However, abortion fanatics slowly chipped away at those safeguards put in place to protect women. Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley noted, “The Obama administration dropped many of the reporting requirements and allowed non-physicians to prescribe the drug. Obama’s FDA also discarded the required follow-up visit.”

Then the Biden administration moved in to finish the job by getting rid of the in-person dispensing completely, thanks to COVID, and voila! — now anyone can order the pill over the internet, anywhere in the world, with no regulations for the drug or protections for women. Dannenfelser correctly points out that the “laws cannot protect vulnerable people and the public health as long as the federal government is undermining them by leaving Biden’s mail-order abortion drug rule in place.”

Now, as expected, we have cases across the country where women are being coerced by abusive partners to take the pill, some even having them take it without their knowledge, and killing a child that they wanted to keep. We have companies, like Planned Parenthood, lying to women about the dangerous side effects, when in fact the rate of adverse health problems is 22 times higher than what Danco puts on the label.

Will any of this stop the pharmaceutical company from making the drug, or stop Planned Parenthood from advertising and selling it? Of course not; there is too much money to be made. “Business is so lucrative, in fact, that mifepristone is the only drug the company makes,” Hawley argued. “One recent piece of public reporting suggested investors’ returns top 450% — even as one in ten women who take the drug face health devastation.”

Mifepristone now accounts for 70% of abortions, and since the drug is so easily attainable by anyone, that number will continue to grow. Obviously, it would be best to ban the chemical abortion drug entirely, as Hawley is calling on Congress to do. He’s right that it’s the “only realistic way to end this epidemic,” but given our corrupt legislators, there’s little hope of that.

Although the pro-life cause is up against a Goliath in the fight, and it appears insurmountable right now, we must not give up. Evil flourishes when good men do nothing. As the SBA, Hawley, and others fight for life where God has placed them, it is imperative that we take up whatever part God has for us to play, whether big or small. If God can use a shepherd boy against a giant, He can use you.