She ordered the drugs online — no doctor, no screening, no questions asked. A few days later, a nondescript package arrived at her door. Inside it was a handful of abortion drugs encased by a small packet and a handwritten note that simply read, “We wish you the best.” No one to follow up with. No assurance anyone even knew her name.
Thankfully, in this situation, the woman receiving these high-risk drugs was an investigative reporter with the Daily Caller. But how many women and girls around this country are receiving the unmarked, dangerous delivery via the mail? How many are being told “we wish you the best” as she’s left to self-manage the abortion of her child in her home?
Tragically, this is abortion in America today. For decades abortion activists told us the worst thing possible would be a woman self-managing her own abortion and that’s why brick and mortar centers were necessary. But over the last few years, prior to the Dobbs decision, we started to see a shift in their strategy.
Biden’s FDA made abortion pills more available through the mail. (RELATED: Abortion-By-Mail Surging — Even In States Where It’s Banned)
What used to be labeled, even by activists, as dangerous and tragic is now being pushed as the preferred method. Today, those same groups push these mail-order drugs with no doctor, no physical exam and no safeguards. They dismiss the real risks of abortion drugs for women and girls and even instituted a faceless, doctor-less process to sell the drugs through an app. As the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed with the Biden FDA’s lawyer in 2023, you can just order the drugs via email: “No doctor has to be involved. That’s true.”
The truth is, not only is this not safe — it’s dangerous by design. And there’s a growing body of research that exposes that. But even according to the FDA’s own data, one in 25 women who take these abortion drugs will end up in the emergency room. And they’re only approved for use up to 10 weeks into pregnancy, but with no in-person screening involved, there’s no way to confirm how far along a woman is before she takes them.
These drugs carry a black box warning, the FDA’s highest safety alert. Yet, unbelievably, another piece of evidence unearthed by the Daily Caller investigation is that women are being shipped these drugs with instructions that, if complications arise, they should lie to their ER doctors and say they’re having a natural miscarriage. In what other area of medicine would we accept this? Where else would women be told to hide the truth from the very people trying to care for them? This is a reckless system that places emphasis on expanding abortion, not women’s health.
A recent peer-reviewed study from researchers at the Charlotte Lozier Institute reveals that emergency room visits following abortion drugs are frequently miscoded, raising serious concerns about patient safety — and these miscoded ER visits were significantly more likely to be severe. Women are being advised and pushed into harm’s way, then left to deal with the consequences. This is not informed consent. It’s a coordinated effort to bury the truth, and women suffer the consequences, all the while being lied to that abortion drugs are “just as safe as Tylenol.”
It is long past time for the FDA to reopen its safety review of abortion drugs — a step that is not only warranted but urgently needed. It’s reassuring to hear FDA chief Marty Makary confirm to Senator Josh Hawley that such a review will take place. That commitment can’t come soon enough. Too many women and children have already been harmed.
Just look at recent cases like the story of Catherine Herring, who was allegedly and secretly drugged by her husband, almost killing her and their child. Or the New York doctor who allegedly mailed abortion drugs to a mother in Louisiana so she could force her daughter to abort against her will. This shocking trend exposes a terrifying reality: these drugs are not only medically risky, but easy to use for abuse, coercion and exploitation. A system that allows lethal drugs to be mailed with no oversight, no safeguards and no verification of consent is not just unsafe—it’s inhumane.
In sum, this is the state of so-called “abortion care” in America today: women left to self-manage dangerous drugs that end the lives of their children, all acquired through a doctorless, sketchy mail system that shrugs and says, “We wish you the best.” Abortion activists’ remark, rather than being comforting, reads like a cruel punchline. Women don’t need drugs in the dark and lies in the ER — we need real support and solutions. In fact, most women who’ve had abortions say they would’ve preferred actual material or emotional support over an abortion.
It’s time to end this faceless, reckless experiment and start telling the truth: this isn’t care. It’s abandonment. And women and children deserve far better.
Emily Erin Davis represents Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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