Dangerous: Maine abortion facility dispenses abortion pill ‘contact-free’

A chain of abortion facilities in Maine have taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to push a no-contact service for the abortion pill. Just six days after Maine reported its first case of the coronavirus, Maine Family Planning program director Leah Coplon had successfully implemented the program under the guise of social distancing and helping to reduce the spread of the virus.

Maine Family Planning was already participating in a clinical trial attempting to prove the safety of TelAbortion with pills dispensed by mail. Currently, an FDA safety system called REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) dictates that abortion pills can only be dispensed at a hospital or an approved clinic. The clinical trial has greatly expanded from its original scope — from 50 participants in the beginning to 1,000 or more currently. It also spread from two states to 13, and shockingly allows children as young as 10 to participate. The rapid expansion of participants and states, while continually extending the length of the clinical trial, is believed by some to be a purposeful workaround of REMS standards, so chemical abortions can be even more widely accessible. In fact, the trial’s principal investigator admitted as much.

At this time, Live Action News has no information on how many (if any) of the women accessing abortion through Maine Family Planning’s no-contact service are part of this clinical trial. No mention is made in the glowing media coverage as to whether women are getting ultrasounds before they participate in the “contact-free” program, but an ultrasound is part of the clinical trial’s protocol — and is a much-needed safety measure. If a woman comes for a no-contact pickup having never received an ultrasound, her pregnancy may not be properly dated for gestational age (which can affect the success rate of the abortion pill) and a potential ectopic pregnancy may be overlooked. This puts women’s lives at risk.

READ: Questions about the abortion pill? Live Action’s video playlist has answers.

In the “contact-free” process, women are first screened by phone, and then have a telehealth visit with a clinician. They can then drop by any one of the 18 facilities operated by Maine Family Planning to pick up the pre-packaged medication, along with instructions and a pregnancy test, without ever receiving an in-person consultation or exam. Part of the benefit of this program for the abortion chain is that women can get abortion pills easily, and therefore, the facilities can commit more chemical and surgical abortions.

“We feel that this both will reduce spread [of the virus] between patients and staff, allow us to have fewer people in the clinic so we are able to maintain social distancing as possible for patients, and to preserve our personal protective equipment which we need for aspiration abortions and which while right now is adequate, depending on how long this lasts may become increasingly scarce,” Coplon told TIME.

The abortion industry has consistently been pushing for chemical abortions to be committed via telemedicine, without a woman ever needing to visit a facility. Yet despite claims that abortion pills are safe and have few side effects, the reality is quite different.

1st Trimester Medical Abortion: Abortion Pills

Coplon claims this is a good option for women whose children are currently home all day due to COVID-19 school cancellations — but many women who undergo the chemical abortion regimen have reported experiencing pain and trauma as they go through abortion in their homes or dorm rooms, possibly even having to dispose of the bodies of their preborn children themselves. And despite what they’re told by the abortion industry, post-abortive women have said that it is not an easy experience, describing it as terrifying, humiliating, painful, horrific, and like “the scene of a murder.”

Known complications of the abortion pill include heavy cramping, nausea/vomiting, and hemorrhaging. Women have died from abortion pills, most often from infection and undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies. If Coplon’s program doesn’t require an ultrasound to rule out ectopic pregnancy, this could be fatal for women. In addition, without a physical exam and ultrasound and simply using last menstrual period (LMP) to determine gestational age, serious errors can be made. While the abortion pill is approved by the FDA for up to 10 weeks, the the risk of a failed abortion increases as pregnancy progresses. If the abortion pill fails, a woman must then undergo a surgical abortion.

The real beneficiary in all of this is the abortion industry which can collect money and then leave women and hospital emergency rooms to deal with any potentially serious consequences from the abortion pill.

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