By Chelsey Youman
Thanks to the reversal of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, pro-life states regained their right to enforce pro-life laws and state constitutions.
Although children in the womb are protected in more than a dozen states,1 abortion is still rampant in those same states.
That’s because the abortion industry is exploiting a huge loophole: Easy access to chemical abortion, or “the abortion pill.” These drugs are often ordered online or over the phone and delivered directly2 to a pregnant woman’s mailbox. And the federal laws3 prohibiting this type of drug trafficking are not being enforced.
We’re laser-focused on efforts to protect women and children from these abortion industry predators.
Abortion Drugs Are Rampant
The abortion pill is a two-drug regimen4 that was approved by the FDA in the year 2000. The first drug (mifepristone) kills the child in the womb by blocking the hormone progesterone and effectively starving him or her to death, and the second drug (misoprostol) expels him or her from the womb.
And chemical abortion is no small industry. Gone are the days when the most common way to procure an abortion was inside the walls of a clinic like Planned Parenthood. Chemical abortion now accounts for more than half of all abortion deaths5.
Until recently, these pills could only be procured in-person from an authorized provider. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently gave in to pressure from the abortion lobby and struck down these basic safety precautions.
When the full abortion drug regimen is completed, the process is fatal to the human life in the womb nearly every time.
In addition to killing a child, the abortion pill regimen carries serious risks to the pregnant mother’s health. Chemical abortion is four times more dangerous to women6 than surgical abortion. In fact, a new analysis reveals that 35 percent of women7 who take the abortion pill end up in the emergency room within 30 days of doing so. Risks include hemorrhage, sepsis, and the psychological trauma of seeing the fully-formed, deceased child when he or she is expelled. Not only do abortionists fail to warn her of these risks, but they also don’t always return her call when a complication does arise.
Pro-Life States CAN Stop Abortion Drug Trafficking… If They Go All-In
Pro-life states are fighting to stop abortion drug traffickers because no child should be killed in the womb and no woman should be subjected to the callous indifference of an industry that has zero regard for her health.
But pro-life lawmakers are up against a host of obstacles that include activist pro-abortion judges, a federal bureaucracy infested by the abortion lobby, a lack of public education on the problem of chemical abortion drug trafficking, and rogue District Attorneys who have promised not to enforce laws protecting children and women because of their fealty to the abortion lobby.
In February of this year, for instance, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled8 that the Texas Attorney General did not have the authority to protect Texas children and women from abortion industry predators targeting them from outside the state. Never mind the fact that the Oath of Office9 for all appointed and elected officials in Texas requires a promise to “preserve, protect, and defend… laws of the United States and of this State.” The laws of the State of Texas protect children from abortion violence, and the Texas Attorney General must be free to do his job of enforcing them.
Despite efforts to stop pro-life protections, leaders in pro-life states are undeterred from the goal of protecting innocent human life. And they’re introducing legislation to make that a reality.
Human Coalition Action is working with pro-life lawmakers in numerous states to forward Human Coalition model legislation entitled The Women and Children Safety Act.10 The Act tackles chemical abortion drug trafficking from multiple fronts, using the successful private enforcement mechanisms seen in the Texas Heartbeat Law. It allows private citizens to sue anyone illegally distributing the abortion pill regimen in Texas and creates a pathway to sue for the wrongful death of a child or mother.
The Women and Children Safety Act also prohibits abortion pill distribution through the mail (which federal law also prohibits, though federal authorities are by and large not enforcing this law). The Act allows the Attorney General to prosecute abortion-related crimes ignored by activist district attorneys and to sue on behalf of victims of abortion. And, as with virtually all pro-life legislation, pregnant women are protected from penalty and liability under the Act.
The Act has been filed in the Texas House, as has an abbreviated version of the Act focusing on wrongful death liability11 for children and women killed by chemical abortion industry actors.
States have both a right and a duty to protect human life in the womb and their mothers from the horrors of abortion. This requires passing protections for children, but it also requires identifying and closing the loopholes that abortion industry predators exploit to circumvent those protections. Along with efforts to provide mothers and families with the abortion alternatives and support they need to choose life, pro-life states are committed to seeing abortion ended in their states.
Citations and Resources
[1]: Number of States Where Abortion Is Banned
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html
[2]: Abortion Pill Access By Mail
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/health/abortion-pills-fda.html
[3]: Abortion Laws Not Being Enforced
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/20/texas-fda-abortion-pill-comstock-act/
[4]: Abortion By Two-drug Regimen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRDnVSMr5j0
[5]: Abortion Deaths By Pill
https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2022/02/medication-abortion-now-accounts-more-half-all-us-abortions
[6]: Danger of Chemical Abortion:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19888037/
[7]: 35% of Abortion Pill Users End Up in the ER
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23333928211053965
[8]: Judge Pitman Ruling
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/24/texas-abortion-funds-ruling/
[9]: Texas Oath of Office
https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CN/htm/CN.16.htm#:~:text=%22I%2C%20_______________________%2C%20do%20solemnly,%2C%20so%20help%20me%20God.%22
[10]: The Women and Children Safety Act
https://hucoaction.org/human-coalition-action-applauds-introduction-of-women-and-children-safety-act/
[11]: Wrongful Death Protection Act
https://hucoaction.org/human-coalition-action-applauds-introduction-of-wrongful-death-protection-act/
