Irish woman nearly dies from undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy after taking abortion pill

A case study published this week in the Official Journal of the Irish Medical Organisation reveals that a 24-year-old woman experienced a life-threatening ruptured ectopic pregnancy after she was given the abortion pill at a hospital in Limerick.

The journal’s authors, OB/GYNs at the University Maternity Hospital, Limerick, say the instance represents “a serious and life-threatening event ie maternal collapse due to a ruptured EP [ectopic pregnancy] after a termination of pregnancy” and note that “it could have been prevented by ultrasound for location of the pregnancy.”

As Dr. Calum Miller noted on X, “She had no risk factors for ectopic pregnancy, so screening questions recommended by abortionists wouldn’t have prevented this.”

Note that this week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding the FDA’s approval of mifepristone without in-person visits or testing. During those arguments, the attorney for the FDA told Justice Elena Kagan that ultrasounds weren’t needed to detect ectopic pregnancies, and that a series of questions could determine it instead.

An ectopic pregnancy occurs when the developing human in the blastocyst stage implants outside of the uterus, most commonly in the fallopian tubes. It is the most common life-threatening emergency in early pregnancy; patients are at risk of tubal rupture and catastrophic hemorrhage. Many women who seek emergency care for an ectopic pregnancy present with symptoms of abdominal pain and bleeding — symptoms which mirror those a woman experiences after undergoing a chemical abortion, making the dangerous condition difficult to detect if an ultrasound has not been administered.

The pro-life organization Pro Life Campaign is blaming the tragic case on a 2018 decision by lawmakers to forgo a requirement that would have made ultrasounds mandatory prior to abortion.

“This shocking story from Limerick shows the disastrous impact of the decision by the Government in 2018, and by then-Minister for Health Simon Harris in particular, to reject out of hand an amendment which would have mandated an ultrasound before an abortion could be carried out,” said Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Eilís Mulroy.

“The amendment tabled in 2018 would have meant that issues like the existence of an ectopic pregnancy would’ve been caught before the woman had an abortion, which would’ve avoided such dangerous and life-threatening outcomes. As the WHO describe[s], medical abortion can make undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies particularly difficult to identify, since the symptoms of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and a medical abortion can be so similar,” Milroy added. “Now we are seeing the consequences of his reckless decision which leaves women at increased risk of an unidentified ectopic pregnancy, which can rupture, resulting in life-threatening internal haemorrhage.”

Mulroy noted that the further introduction of telemedicine abortion, in which a woman can receive the abortion pills without ever receiving an in-person examination, only exacerbates the risk to women.

Despite the obvious danger to the woman in the case study, its authors concluded that confirming pregnancy location via ultrasound prior to chemical abortion is “debatable”; while they cite “reducing morbidity and mortality” as an argument in favor of requiring the practice, they claim “financial costs” and “emotional distress” as two reasons why ultrasounds shouldn’t be mandated.

Clearly the mindset of the abortion industry — which continues to push profit over everything else, including the health and safety of women — is at play here.

The DOJ put a pro-life grandmother in jail for protesting the killing of preborn children. Please take 30-seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP THE DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.