Abortion pill promoters pushing for a return to back-alley abortions, isolating women in crisis

For immediate release 

July 22, 2019

Ottawa, ON – The Globe and Mail and other news sources are on a mission to promote the abortion pill, and demonize any perceived barriers to access. “What is missing in the narrative,” says Anna Nienhuis of We Need a Law, “is the balance explaining the risks to women, not to mention their pre-born children, 95% of whom will not survive. The push for the abortion pill is a push to return to back alley abortions, where women are told to handle crisis pregnancies in isolation. Desperation and isolation are a sad and scary combination, and not something anyone should be promoting for Canadian women.”

Mifegymiso, a combination of two medications that cause the fetus to be deprived of nutrients and then expelled from the body of his or her mother, causes severe pain, cramping, and bleeding. Hemorrhaging is one possible side effect. For women in remote locations, the pill is touted as a way to improve access to abortion, but these are the women with the least access to emergency services if something goes wrong.

“We are surprised at the callous approach of abortion activists when it comes to the pill,” says Nienhuis. “Removing ultrasound requirements, allowing pharmacists or nurses to prescribe it, and even suggesting the removal of a prescription requirement – these are all indications of a group bent on pushing their agenda regardless of the consequences. It is evidence that abortion activists do not ultimately care about what’s best for women, let alone their children. While some supporters may genuinely think they are helping women by advocating for “choice”, in fact they have bought into the lie being sold that the primary right they should fight for is the right to kill their children when they are most dependent and defenseless. This is counter-intuitive and the reason abortion remains so hotly contested and debated.”

Activists have been very effective in removing perceived barriers to access for the abortion pill, and abortion pill usage rates are climbing, but they are being prescribed by the same people who were doing the surgical abortions. It seems most doctors simply don’t want to be abortion providers, whatever the method.

“There are many reasons the abortion pill sounds good,” says Nienhuis. “It’s cheap, convenient and highly effective. But those considerations only matter if you can get past the fact that it’s ending a human life. No one should be willing to get past that, and it seems those who can are only those who were already past caring about that.”