10 quotes from women who had an abortion by pill

Women who take the abortion pill RU-486 regimen can face emotional and physical hardship during and after they expel their preborn babies.

Medical abortions occur in the first trimester, as described by Dr. Anthony Levatino in the video below:

1st Trimester Medical Abortion: Abortion Pills

Here are excerpts from some women’s stories about their experiences with the abortion pill.

1.  A woman who had had both a surgical abortion and an abortion by pill described the aftermath of her pill abortion as:

the worst experience, the most physically and emotionally painful thing, that I’ve ever been through.

She also said:

The pill for me was the experience of having a baby. Contractions for 10 hours, sweating, screaming, being by myself. It was emotionally scarring and physically horrible.(1)

2.  “Rose” had two abortions by surgery and then one by pill. She says:

Overall the worst part of the RU-486 [the abortion pill] was the sheer amount of time it took for me to “terminate” my baby: with each and every large clot of blood – which I literally could feel passing through my insides and then out of my vagina – was a reminder of the fact I was terminating a baby, for which I felt hugely saddened. More than I realized I would.(2)

3.  “Amber” shares her story:

I got a non-surgical abortion. Nothing prepared me for what happened. First off it was the worst pain I have EVER felt in my life. And secondly, I SAW my baby. He/she looked so human already. I had no idea that my baby was so big after only 2 months. Just because you can’t see or feel it inside you doesn’t mean it’s not alive.(3)

4. From a woman who took the abortion pill in a trial in France:

The pain was like menstrual cramps, 20 times over…(4)

5. From another woman who had an abortion by pill:

It was the most painful experience ever in my life. On top of emotional pain, when the second pill was taking effect, I had the most indescribable excruciating pain for more than 6 hours. It almost killed me…

6. Another woman tells her story of abortion by pill:

I took my anti-nausea meds before taking the four pills, and then I took a Tylenol with codeine. None of which touched me. I ended up vomiting repeatedly in the bathroom for about 10 minutes. ..

About thirty minutes into laying on the couch, I was in agonizing pain, pacing up and down my kitchen, randomly screaming and crying…

7.  From a woman who told her story in Marie Claire:

Nothing – not the drug literature, the clinic doctor, not even my own gyno – had prepared me for the searing, gripping, squeezing pain that ripped through my belly 30 minutes later. I couldn’t even form words …..For 90 minutes, I was disoriented, nauseated, and, between crushing waves of contractions, that I imagine were close to what labor feels like, racing from the bed to the bathroom with diarrhea(5)

8. From a boyfriend whose partner had a pill abortion:

It was quite a big thing, like giving birth, so I wish that I had been there for her. It was a bloody mess. Wendy went through contractions, just like a pregnancy. (6)

9. In an article in The Boston Phoenix, a woman describes an abortion at six weeks via pill:

Back at the dorm, hours later, I know that I writhed in my twin bed, suffering from debilitating, convulsing cramps. My roommates, best friend, and boyfriend hovered around; they brought me pain killers, Tiger Balm, hot-water bottles, and applesauce,… I bled profusely as my body rejected the fetus that had been described to me as “the size of a grain of rice.”(7)

10. From a 30 year old mother of two who took the abortion pill:

I took the first three tablets. The process had started and it was inevitable. But you have so long to reflect on it, and I became quite upset…

the pain became very strong. It was just like early labor. I remember finally dispelling the fetus. The nurse told me it was “beautifully formed.”

[This method] may be physically more natural, but psychologically it hits you much harder. You preside over the killing of a baby, completely unblinkingly.”

1. Source: GARDINER HARRIS “Scientists Will Gather to Discuss Safety of Abortion Pill” The New York Times  May 11, 2006

2. Renate Klein, Janice G Raymond, Lynette Dumble RU-486: Misconceptions, Myths and Moral (North Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex, 1991, 2013) Kindle edition

3. Quote from The clinic gave me 2 pills – Stand Up Girl. Accessed May 25, 2006.

4. Etienne–Emile Baulieu The “Abortion Pill” (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990) 91

5. Norine Dworkin-McDaniel “BETRAYED BY A PILL” Marie Claire (US), Jul2007, Vol. 14 7, p184-186

6. James D Slack Abortion, Execution, and the Consequences of Taking Life (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2009) 64

7. Anonymous “I Had an Abortion” The Boston Phoenix Sept 24, 2008

8. Wendy Wright “The Deceit behind RU-486: Who’s Really in Control?” Family Voice, November/December 2000