Traci DeVette Griggs | January 19, 2017 | SHARE: 
Melinda Delahoyde, President of Gateway Pregnancy Center in Raleigh, speaks about some frightening developments in regard to abortion pills and the push to make them easily accessible to younger and younger girls.
INTRODUCTION: Hi this is Traci Griggs, Director of Communications for NC Family, sitting in this week for John Rustin. I’m delighted to welcome back our guest today who has been a lifelong leader in the pregnancy center movement. Melinda Delahoyde served for many years as president of Care Net, one of the nation’s largest and oldest networks of pregnancy centers. She recently agreed to serve as president of Gateway pregnancy center in Raleigh, which is located within a few miles of five college campuses.
Just a little warning parents, this radio show contains some graphic information that we believe is very important for you to have but it may not be good information for sensitive young ears.
This is the second part of a two-week discussion with Melinda. Last week, we talked about some interesting transformations in pregnancy centers across the nation. This week, we are going to discuss some frightening developments in regard to abortion pills. There is a push to make these easily accessible to younger and younger girls and to minimize doctor involvement in the process.
TRACI GRIGGS: Melinda, when the idea of an emergency contraceptive—or the Morning After Pill—first came up almost 20 years ago, the idea that was presented to the public was that these pills would prevent conception from happening. Is that still how that works?
MELINDA DELAHOYDE: There’s a lot of confusion people sometimes have between the “morning after pill” and the “abortion pill.” They’re not the same thing. The morning after pill is exactly what you described. The abortion pill is a pill that can be taken up to ten weeks of a pregnancy that literally is given in two doses. The first dose cuts off the blood and food supply for the unborn baby, and the second dose produces the contractions by which the unborn child is expelled. And it’s what’s known as a “chemical” abortion. And that’s what the abortion pill does. So, they’re two very different things.
I think it’s so helpful to get a little bit of a bigger perspective about what is going on with abortion in America. And I think the most important thing to realize is that abortion is a multi-millions and millions of dollars profit industry in this country. And I think we saw with some of the videos that came out last year with fetal body parts for sale and what’s going on, this money is a driving force. It is literally an abortion industry. So that industry is very savvy. They’re absolutely committed to taking away any restraints, any restrictions on abortion whatsoever, and they want to make abortion as easily acceptable and as anonymous as possible. So that is why the abortion pill and the dissemination of that pill, the wide distribution of that pill, without restrictions, as easily as it can be given to a woman and taken by a woman, that is the goal of the abortion industry.
TRACI GRIGGS: Just a little warning parents, this radio show contains some graphic information that we believe is very important for you to have, but it may not be good information sensitive young ears.
MELINDA DELAHOYDE: And so what we’re seeing now, and it’s similar to other trends in medicine, telemedicine, easy access to medical professionals, being able to go over the phone or Skype or whatever, instead of going to someone’s office, these are the very same trends that the abortion industry is looking at and trying to implement. So, it used to be that you needed to see an OBGYN to get a prescription for the abortion pill; that is no longer the case. And you can receive that from any medical professional and have that privately, take that pill home and have that abortion in your bathroom, and then relate back in some way to a medical professional. But, I think people assume, and especially young women taking the abortion pill, assume that, “Oh my gosh, I swallow a pill and the baby’s gone.” No, no, it’s a painful process with cramping and bleeding and all the things going on with the possibility of infection, of complications after that pill is taken, and it’s a two-part process. And literally, you go in your bathroom, close the door, and deliver that baby in the toilet. I mean, I hate to be so graphic with our listeners, but what we’re talking about here is a grizzly and graphic reality of aborting an unborn baby. And so now that abortion pill, there’s testing being done in the western states, California and Oregon, to see if this pill can be distributed through telemedicine, if this pill could be distributed at college health centers. So that a young women—and particularly working in Raleigh with five colleges and 51,000 college students, the picture in our minds is a young women goes to her college health center, says, “I would like to have the abortion pill,” gets that pill, goes back to her dorm room, into the bathroom, and has that abortion. And no one needs to ever know except her. And you see that is the goal of the abortion movement: that no one needs ever know; that you don’t have to go to an OBGYN for the prescription; that it is as easy to access as anything could be. And the outcry from any person should be, “But wait a minute, if this is about women’s reproductive health—which is the code-phrase that is always used—shouldn’t we be even more concerned about the effects of that pill, about the possible complications, about insuring that she is receiving adequate—even more than adequate—medical care for a procedure like this, instead of making it a anonymous, accessible, and easy to find anywhere, at your college health center?” But because it’s abortion and because it’s big business in America, we do not have these questions being brought forth.
TRACI GRIGGS: So, in this country is there any assurance that women will not be taking the abortion pill after ten weeks?
MELINDA DELAHOYDE: There are state regulations. In our state for instance, a woman must have an ultrasound to be sure that she actually is pregnant before she takes the pill, and what is the gestational age of that baby. So, there are safeguards like that. States can put in safeguards to regulate the use of the abortion pill. But the point is in California and Oregon, two of the most liberal abortion states, it never comes like all of a sudden here this is, it comes through testing in states that are very pro-abortion, and then the testing we begin to see, “Well, let’s do another beta test of this; let’s see how this works.” So, right now this is all in the testing phase, giving it to college health centers. Just how far we can go down the telemedicine route, so to speak, but that’s how things come, they come in stages like that. And it’s no surprise to anyone in the life movement that this would be going on because the abortion pill is money, and it does exactly what the abortion industry wants to do, it normalizes abortion: It makes it anonymous. It just makes it part of women’s healthcare, which of course everyone’s for “women’s healthcare.”
TRACI GRIGGS: This also brings up another issue. Students for Life of America, several years ago, did an undercover investigation at pharmacies to determine truth behind reports they had been hearing that predators were accessing these abortion pills to cover up abuse, or sexual activity that sometimes involved underage girls. Their findings were very disconcerting in terms of how little control or oversight or analysis of the situation that was leading to the request for these pills. The risk of these drugs being used to cover up situations like abuse, incest, prostitution, etc., seems like another very good argument to maintain an enhanced, not lessened, degree of regulation over these abortion pills.
MELINDA DELAHOYDE: I think that it’s so ironic that on the one hand we’re working so hard to stop human trafficking, to protect our young women, to protect those most vulnerable young women from predators, from human trafficking, from sex slavery, and of course we’re all working hard and want that to end, but at the same time the liberal abortion laws and access to the pill. Yes, their bosses, so to speak, have a great interest in them not becoming pregnant. But when that happens in that industry, which obviously it would happen, then they can abuse those women, young girls. And with that pill, it’s not protection for that young woman at all, and it’s not reproductive healthcare for her. It’s someone who is in charge of her who has illegally enslaved her and committed all kinds of crimes against her to then go and get that pill and force her to take it for their financial gain, not for her protection.
TRACI GRIGGS: Here at NC Family these are the kinds of issues that we tackle every day, of course, on a state level. We are out there trying to provide as many protections as possible, and listeners could certainly get involved with us. But do you have other suggestions as to what people can do if they are alarmed by what they’ve heard during this radio show and want to get involved.
MELINDA DELAHOYDE: You know there are many fronts to get involved and after 40 years of abortion and its consequences, and the abortion pill and all the things that we’re seeing now, I think people need [to get involved]. People who believe in a Judeo-Christian worldview are the ones we want to govern our civil discourse, our society, our legal system, because they are life-giving, they are protection but they affirm the value of every human life. If we believe that, if people believe that, then I would ask them to look at where they can make the best contribution. Is it in the compassion side of the life movement, at a pregnancy center ministry, or a center where they can be directly in contact, see the ground-game so to speak? Is it working on policy issues and working through the great work, Traci, that you all are doing, and working with others in their state? Is it through the legal system and raising up a whole team of attorneys—the next generation who will protect and value? I think that people need to decide what kind of contribution do they want to make because it takes every facet of a society that wants to protect and cherish human life at all stages. There are just many different fronts on which we’re fighting this battle in American society, because it is a war on worldview. That is what is at the core of all the life issues: it’s a war of worldviews between those who believe that every life is created in the image of God and therefore has value, versus those who believe that literally there are some lives not worthy to be lived. And once you move away from a worldview that has a God, a moral God at the top of that hierarchy and say we will decide who lives and who dies, that will always dissolve into those most powerful rule those who are weak.
TRACI GRIGGS: We really appreciate all of your insight on this. We’re nearly out of time for this week. Can you tell our listeners where they can go if they want to learn more about you or the books that you’ve written or any of these issues?
MELINDA DELAHOYDE: There’s lots out there that’s available and I would just encourage you to go online and find out the information, the resources, and the way that you can be involved protecting unborn lives, protecting human lives, and being an active participant in this in a society where the doors are still open to do that.
TRACI GRIGGS: Melinda Delahoyde, thanks you so much for being with us on Family Policy Matters.
MELINDA DELAHOYDE: Thanks Traci, it was great to be here.
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