Mail order abortion pills come to Iowa

The drumbeat to deregulate the abortion pill, RU-486, ticked up during the Obama administration. In 2016, the Food and Drug administration granted Gynuity Health Projects permission to initiate a study to advance abortion services using mail order abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol).

Iowans for LIFE is quick to note the disconnect between Gynuity Health Projects’ name and their mission. dictionary.com defines health as “freedom from disease or ailment.” Gynuity’s Iowa ‘project’ treats fertility, pregnancy, and healthy human life as a disease, if is unwanted. It has nothing to do with health.

The Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City will administer the program, which consists of three parts:

1. A patient calls a clinic staffer to determine if they qualify, which means they are in the first ten weeks of their pregnancy.
2. If yes, they must get an ultrasound at the nearest health clinic and provide it to the Goldman Clinic abortionist.
3. The patient has an appointment via video with the Goldman abortionist, who sends the pills via U.S. Postal Service after the patient pays a tidy $750 fee.

The project appalls Iowans for LIFE’s executive director, Maggie DeWitte:

“The mail order abortion pill program is shocking.  Ru-486 is a dangerous medication that kills unborn children in the womb and harms women both physically and emotionally.  The idea that girls and women across Iowa could receive this dangerous drug through the mail without ever seeing a physician in person is appalling.”

Mail order abortion pills put minors at risk

“And, what about minor girls?  Will 14 year olds be able to obtain this drug without their parents even knowing about it?

Women who have taken this drug report back the enormous physical implications, including an extreme loss of blood and severe cramping. Many thought they would die. This is done in their home, alone, often in their bathroom.  The isolation these women feel is something not easily dealt with.  They are faced with the harsh reality of what they did when they see their dead baby in a toilet.  Because, let’s be clear- that is the reality of medical abortion through the mail.”

The pro-life movement has been tremendously effective at lowering demand for abortion and closing abortion mills.  Here in Iowa, Planned Parenthood has been forced to scale back from 24 abortion clinics in 2012 to nine today.

Innovative ways to kill

As Ms. DeWitte explained, fewer doctors are willing to perform surgical abortions, thus the need for mail order abortion pills:

“According to Dr. Donna Harrison, President of American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYN’s, there are some 86 sites from whom you can purchase RU-486 pills.  While brick and mortar abortion centers are closing, and there are fewer doctors willing to perform abortions, the abortion industry has found new and innovative ways to kill unborn children and harm women and girls.”

This project allows Iowa abortionists to leverage their deadly trade and kill more babies with a couple of pills. They are able to do it at a much higher profit margin, since they no longer need brick and mortar clinics, and yet they charge the same for a medical abortion as they do a surgical one.

What awaits women who succumb to the easy lure of mail order abortion pills? Pro-life author, Abby Johnson, described her experience like this:

“It looked like I was sitting in the middle of a crime scene.”