Fact checking the fact checkers: Yes, the abortion pill really is dangerous
In the push for legalized abortion prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion advocates discussed the “need” for legal abortion, emphasizing the dangers of at-home abortion attempts. Today, those concerns seem to have been pushed aside for the sake of profit. Senator Ted Cruz and Live Action president Lila Rose recently joined forces in a National Review op-ed, calling for the federal government to ban the use of the abortion pill (mifepristone). Cruz and Rose said what the abortion industry, which is promoting dangerous DIY at-home abortions, will never admit: the abortion pill is deadly. It is also profitable, and few know this better than abortion industry insider, Dr. Daniel Grossman.
Grossman is the director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and is a Senior Advisor at Ibis Reproductive Health, an organization working to make abortion “easy to access” and “available without unnecessary medical requirements or legal impediments.” He is also an abortionist and abortionist trainer with connections to the abortion pill’s manufacturer, Danco. Last year, he attempted to muzzle Live Action’s pro-life message as one of Facebook’s “third-party fact checkers.” Now, he has decided to have another go at fact checking, this time setting his sights on Cruz and Rose’s op-ed, alluding to his desire for more women to obtain the abortion pill, as is evident by his title rewrite. The rest of his so-called fact checking falls short as well.
Hi @tedcruz & @LilaGraceRose. I saw your latest op-ed on the court's decision to make medication abortions more accessible in a few states during the coronavirus pandemic.
I hope you won't mind if I offer a few edits and fact check the piece. 📝
The FDA states that 24 women have died from the abortion pill — that we know of. Arguing that this number may be lower is beside the point. The fact is that women have died and will die from the abortion pill. Given that the abortion pill is not health care, nor is it essential to any woman’s wellbeing, is it worth sacrificing one woman as collateral damage, let alone 13 or 24?
Comparing the abortion pill to Viagra is an attempt to camouflage the purpose of mifepristone, which exists to end the lives of humans and thereby intentionallycauses death when administered. The truth is that 3.7 million women have taken the abortion pill… which means that approximately 3.7 million human beings are dead because of it.
Again, millions ofhuman beings – both women and children – are dying because of the abortion pill, drugs which Grossman directly promotes, yet Grossman’s tweet either overlooks or minimizes these deaths.
Ibis Reproductive Health funded by Danco and Packard Jan 2020 (Image: WBM)
As explained by former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino in the video below, the abortion pill regimen works in two steps. First, it deprives the growing child of nutrients so that it starves and dies (mifepristone). Then the second pill is meant to expel the child from the uterus (misoprostol).
Legalizing DIY abortions puts women at risk
What is interesting about Grossman’s remarks is that while he accurately states that the abortion pill cannot be dispensed in pharmacies by prescription, he has advocated for removing all barriers, making the abortion pill over-the-counter. He wrote in a 2019 op-ed at USA Today, “As more abortion patients seek out online options for self-managed care, it’s time to meet their needs with services like over-the-counter access to medication abortion. This is the future of reproductive health care, and we must continue to ask politicians, including those currently seeking the presidency, about how they plan to make it a reality.” (emphasis added)
The Charlotte Lozier Institute responded to Grossman’s op-ed at the time, pointing out the dangers of such a move — a move Grossman believes should be the ultimate goal. Grossman wants to do away with REMS completely, seemingly holding to the same philosophy as Planned Parenthood’s former president Cecile Richards, who spuriously claimed the abortion pill is “safer than Tylenol.”
DIY abortion pills have quickly been proven dangerous
Grossman looks to the UK as a role model; however, since the UK introduced a “Pills by Post” DIY abortion protocol in March during the COVID-19 pandemic, an undercover investigation found that abortionists are failing to perform basic health checks on women before mailing them the abortion pill.
Two women in the UK have died from the abortion pill since that time. One is said to have died “very quickly” with sepsis and the second was found dead in her home. A leaked urgent email from the NHS spoke of the “escalating risk around the ‘Pills by Post’ process….”
Additionally, in May, police in the UK began investigating the death of a 28-week-old baby who died after a woman took the DIY abortion pill that was mailed to her without any testing or in-person evaluations. According to the leaked email, there are at least 10 incidents in the UK involving the DIY abortion pill, including three under police investigation.
Pro-abortion organizations offer biased opinions
Appealing to the ACOG and AMA as authorities is not an effective defense due to their well-known pro-abortion bias. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists knows full well the science about human development in the womb, yet still chooses to push for taxpayer-funded, unrestricted abortion, allowing “wantedness” by the biological mother to determine whether a weaker human being lives or dies. Also of note: the ACOG’s clinical management guidelines are created under the guidance of abortionists including Grossman. It is hardly unbiased on the matter of abortion pill safety.
Even if ectopic pregnancies occurred in just 0.5% of the 3.7 million pregnancies that end with the abortion pill, that could lead to the deaths of 18,500 women whose lives are not expendable.
Abortion is never medically necessary. Abortionists may disagree, but exterminating human beings is usually considered the opposite of “health care.”
Preborn children are fully formed during the first trimester
It is impossible to accurately call the abortion pill “safe” when approximately half of all states do not even report abortion complications. Pro-abortion groups have advised women who visit emergency rooms with complications from the abortion pill to lie and say they are miscarrying. The abortion pill has been found to be four times more dangerous than surgical abortion.
A preborn child at 12 weeks gestation.
Grossman claims preborn humans are “not fully formed in the first trimester.” However, during the first trimester, all body parts are accounted for in the preborn child and the baby only needs more time to mature before she is ready for life outside the womb — just as a newborn needs more time to mature before she can eat solid foods or walk. Additionally, not having fully developed body parts does not make a human any less human — pre or post-birth.
No woman is expendable in the name of abortion
Women and babies are more than denominators. Human lives should not be viewed as math problems to be taken “in context.” That would be to say that women’s deaths are worth it because the abortion pill successfully killed their children and millions of others.
Grossman refutes the claim that emergency room doctors are not required to report abortion pill adverse events to the FDA, but fails to cite any legal requirement. In fact, the FDA cautions consumers who experience adverse events from drugs and medical devices: “[y]our health care provider is NOT required to report to the FDA.” Reported non-fatal adverse events number just under 4,200. Since reporting adverse events is not required by health care providers, according to the FDA, then those adverse events are, as Cruz and Rose stated, likely much greater than 4,000.
Blood transfusions are not available at home
While the need for a blood transfusion during childbirth is a risk, most births occur in hospital settings where blood transfusions and medical assistance are available. Grossman, however, is pushing for at-home abortions where blood transfusions are not available.
Preborn humans are humans
The Rose/Cruz op-ed merely points out the truth and does not in any way promote violence. Abortion kills human beings, and abortionists who are less publicly known than Grossman have admitted that “killing” is exactly what they do.
Human zygotes, embryos, and fetuses are human beings who fit under the classification of “children” just as newborns, infants, and toddlers do. The abortion industry makes money from dehumanizing preborn children, and therefore, abortionists have good reason to deny their humanity and to deny that abortion is killing.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
![Screenshot of Senator Ted Cruz and Lila Rose's National Review article titled The Federal Government Must Stop the Deadly [it's not] Abortion Pill which needs a bit of fact checking. Red pen marks factually inaccurate sentences.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EfHlJRyVAAAceJZ?format=jpg&name=small)
Abortion Pill·By Nancy Flanders
