Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, and the increased restrictions on abortion in some states, abortion proponents have been working hard to ensure widespread access to chemical abortion.
Within the next few years, if current trends continue, 7 out of 10 abortions will not take place on an abortion table, but in bedrooms and bathrooms across the U.S. with the use of the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol.
Promoters of chemical abortion use their considerable influence in medicine, media and government to shield the public from the historical roots of the abortion pills, and the serious psychological and physical risks for women.
First, let’s look at the Nazi roots of the abortion pill.
In 1942 the Nazis entered into a partnership with IG Farben, a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. The Nazis provided the company with prisoners for the war effort to keep costs low and profits high.
Prisoners were kept on starvation-level rations and worked until they were too weak to function. When no longer useful to the regime, they were killed with an injection to the heart.
In the 1920’s German chemists developed Zyklon B, originally for use as an insecticide. IG Farben bought the patent for Zyklon B, and later used it to gas millions of Jews and other prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.
After the war I.G. Farben changed its name to Hoechst AG. One of Hoechst’s subsidiaries, Roussel Uclaf, is the French company that developed the abortion pill.
How does the abortion pill end a pregnancy?
RU486 initiates a process similar to a method utilized by IG Farben and the Nazis on prisoners in their slave labor camps: Starvation.
RU486 sends a chemical message to a mother’s body that shuts down the preparation of the uterus for her developing baby. The child, deprived of necessary nutrients, starves to death. The baby detaches and is swept out of the body along with the decayed uterine lining.
Couples today often rationalize that the abortion pill merely initiates an early miscarriage. They are tempted to see the pills as an easier solution than a medical procedure at the abortion center.
In truth, the actual experience of the abortion pill can be a shocking and traumatic event. A woman recalls her chemical abortion:
“I was six weeks pregnant and after an extended period of severe cramping the child was delivered in our bathroom. My partner had to fish the tiny child out of the toilet.”
The father buried the child in their back yard. He frequently visited the “grave site” as he struggled to process the grief and trauma of that event.
They found significant emotional and spiritual healing of that experience by attending an abortion recovery program, but they remain deeply wounded by that abortion experience.
Women, and male partners closely associated with the abortion event, may find that their safe space and refuge, their home, is now the locus of painful and traumatic feelings and memories associated with the abortion experience.
Abortion pills are also associated with serious medical risks and complications.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute published a first-of-its-kind longitudinal study of Medicaid claims data from 17 states where state taxpayer funds pay for abortion.
After analyzing the data the researchers reported:
- The rate of abortion-related ER visits following a chemical abortion increased 507% from 2002-2015.
- Chemical abortion significantly increased the risk of an emergency room visit. Within 30 days of a chemical abortion, when compared to rates following a surgical abortion:
- 22% greater risk of ER visit for any reason.
- 53% greater risk of ER visit for an abortion-related reason.
- Twice as likely to be admitted for surgery for incomplete abortion.
We need to increase our efforts to educate the public about the risks associated with chemical abortion. Women and their partners need to understand the psychological and physical complications of at-home abortions, and the likely individual and relational impact of labor and delivery of early pregnancies in the home.
It’s essential in November to elect representatives who understand the risks associated with chemical abortion, and fight to protect the public. Our communities, especially vulnerable minors and young adults, need laws and policies that restrict easy access by mail, or over the counter, to these harmful, baby-starving chemicals.
LifeNews Note: Theresa Burke, Ph.D., and Kevin Burke, LSW, are the founders of Rachel’s Vineyard, King of Prussia, and pastoral associates of Priests for Life. They are co-authors of Rivers of Blood/Oceans of Mercy.