Abortion is front page news in the Des Moines Register
The Des Moines Register’s lead headline on Wednesday, February 4th, 2026, was:
“Abortion big topic in 2026 elections.”
The sub-headline read:
“Candidates and campaigns figuring out how to talk about the issue.”
The piece acknowledged that pro-abortion candidates got shellacked in Iowa in 2024 by focusing on abortion access.
This year, they’re trying to position abortion access as a central part of ‘healthcare access,’ a flagrantly dishonest position to take. Pulse Executive Director, Maggie DeWitte countered by pointing out how dangerous the abortion pill is in her speech at Iowa State University on January 29th in the Memorial Union. Said DeWitte:
“I can’t tell you enough how dangerous this drug is, and we, in a pro-life movement, have known this for years. Within the last year, there’s a study that came out… one in 10 women who ingest this dangerous drug has a severe adverse event — severe meaning sepsis, infection or hemorrhage. It’s 22 times higher than what the FDA had previously told us about this drug.”
Most common form of abortion
This is especially important since the most popular method for aborting our unborn brothers and sisters is the abortion pill:
“The abortion industry has found a new, insidious way to spread their culture and death through the abortion pill,” DeWitte said. “That, by far, is our biggest battle right now. This dangerous drug is rampant … The majority of what we see with abortions right now, somewhere between 70% and 80% of all abortions are done through the abortion pill.”
That’s why Pulse Life Advocates is lobbying hard to stop its distribution through the mail. Not only does the pill kill a unique human being in her mother’s womb, it wreaks havoc on the health and physical well-being of the mom.
911 calls spike thanks to the abortion pill
Lorien Hershberger provided a unique perspective on just how dangerous the abortion pill is in her essay in The Federalist on January 26th. Ms. Herschberger is a former 911 dispatcher who reports that calls from women suffering side effects from the abortion pill have spiked. She reports:
“The number of calls from women related to chemical abortions is increasing, as is the confusion. Women ask whether the amount of blood they’re losing is normal. They aren’t sure if they took the pills correctly, or at the right time, or in the right dose. Many don’t know how many weeks pregnant they are. They were told this would be simple, private, and empowering. In reality, it is often chaotic and isolating.”
Does this sound like healthcare to you?
Why do pro-abortion politicians want to send dangerous drugs through the mail?
Why do pro-abortion politicians want to eliminate mandatory in-person doctor appointments before prescribing vulnerable women women with a dangerous drug?
Why do pro-abortion politicians want to eliminate in-person counseling and waiting periods that allow at-risk women opportunities to become more fully informed on the life-altering implications of popping an abortion pill that shows up in the mail?
Pro-life politicians need to call them out.
The risk to Iowa
Ms. Hershberger points out the risk a rural state like Iowa faces:
“Women in rural … communities are especially vulnerable. Many lack reliable internet, transportation or nearby emergency rooms. As an emergency responder myself, I know that a phone assessment is only as good as the caller’s ability to describe her symptoms, often while bleeding, panicked and alone. Even Americans who support legal abortion recognize the danger here. A majority oppose mailing abortion drugs without an in-person doctor visit because they understand this is not safe.”
This isn’t healthcare. It’s a nightmare for young women who need authentic compassion. Hershberger spells out the mock benevolence of these pro-abortion politicians:
“We are told these drugs are compassionate and necessary. From where I sit, answering the phone in the dark, they look like a growing public health crisis — one that sacrifices women like Jenny and calls it progress. The calls abortion activists celebrate as victories are the same calls that follow me home at night.”
Anti-woman death care
Abortion has nothing to do with healthcare access, because it isn’t healthcare. It is anti-woman deathcare.
The abortion pill itself produces a trauma-inducing event in one-out-of-ten women who are conned into ingesting it.
The person most-harmed by this toxin is the child in the womb who is starved-to-death by an innocent-looking pill.
The person next harmed most is the child’s mother, who undergoes excruciating, bloody pain for hours on end waiting for her progeny to be prematurely expelled from her womb, usually into a toilet.
Pro-life Iowa politicians must go on offense and confidently explain that the abortion pill is a danger to Iowa women and families, and that any allusion to it being healthcare is a supreme farce.
