Traci DeVette Griggs | January 23, 2020 | SHARE: 
This month marks the 47th year since abortion-on-demand was legalized nationally by Roe v. Wade. For decades, the main method of abortion was surgical, where a physician extracted the unborn baby from a woman’s body using surgical tools. Now, while abortions overall are decreasing, nearly 40 percent of all abortions are performed through the administration of chemicals or drugs. These chemical abortions are marketed by the abortion industry as safe, simple, and private, but this is not the truth.
Patrina Mosley, Director of Life, Culture, and Women’s Advocacy at the Family Research Council, has recently released a publication on this topic, called “The Next Abortion Battleground: Chemical Abortion.” Mosley joins NC Family Communications Director Traci DeVette Griggs on this week’s episode of the Family Policy Matters radio show and podcast.
According to Mosley, the abortion industry has been heavily marketing chemical abortions via the abortion pill as the go-to method for women. There are many benefits to the abortion industry in their doing this. “It is financially more expedient,” shares Mosley. “Why would you pay for skilled surgeons and the overhead costs of a facility […] when you can simply hand a woman pills?”
But what the abortion industry isn’t sharing is that chemical abortions have four times the rate of complications compared to surgical abortions. “They say that it’s simple, it’s straightforward, and it’s private, and that’s absolutely not the case,” says Mosley. “The chemical abortion pill is not safe; it has been documented with over 4,000 adverse effects, including hemorrhaging, infection to the point of having blood transfusions, and 24 women have already died from it.”
“Abortion is a business, and they will do anything they can to protect their business and to expand their business, even at the cost of a woman’s safety.”
Tune in to Family Policy Matters this week to hear Patrina Mosley explain more about the truth of the chemical abortion process.
TRACI GRIGGS: Thank you for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters. This month marks the 47th year since abortion-on-demand was legalized in the United States. Since 1973, the abortion industry has changed. Notably, more than one third of abortions are now chemical. Patrina Mosley joins us today to talk about why this trend should concern us. Mosley serves as Director of Life, Culture and Women’s Advocacy at the Family Research Council and last month released a publication called, “The Next Abortion Battleground: Chemical Abortion.”
Patrina Mosley, welcome to Family Policy Matters.
PATRINA MOSLEY: Thank you for having me on.
TRACI GRIGGS: So, before we jump in and talk about chemical abortions, reflect for a moment if you would on some of the good news that we have out there.
PATRINA MOSLEY:Well the good news is abortion is down overall here in the U.S. That is especially due to the rise in pregnancy resource centers. At this point right now, pregnancy resource centers outnumber abortion clinics five-to-one, and so women are making better decisions because they have better options out there. So that is the good news.
TRACI GRIGGS: Yes, that is good news. While the overall number of abortions is dropping, the opposite is true of chemical abortions, correct? So tell us about that a little bit.
PATRINA MOSLEY: As abortions are decreasing, which is great, there is a rise in the different methods of abortion. One particularly is called the chemical abortion. Most people will call it the “abortion pill,” where women ingest a mix of drugs to induce an abortion. And we’ve seen a rise in them. I think primarily it’s been due to creative marketing by Planned Parenthood, making the abortion pill sound simple, sound safe and straightforward, and sound private, when it’s actually not. If anybody has been familiar with or seen Abby Johnson’s movie Unplanned, she was a former Planned Parenthood worker who became a pro-life activist. I highly encouraged everyone to see her movie Unplanned, because in it, you not only see her story of redemption, but you also see her telling her story of having a chemical abortion. And you see that in the movie. That part shows you the impact of what a chemical abortion actually does to a woman, and it shows you the lie that Planned Parenthood tells women. They say that it’s simple, it’s straightforward and it’s private, and that’s absolutely not the case. The chemical abortion pill is not safe; it has been documented with over 4,000 adverse effects that include hemorrhaging, infection to the point of having blood transfusions, and 24 women have already died from it. So this is not a safe process, and it’s certainly not simple and straightforward. It’s actually a multi-day process.
Unlike traditional abortions or more surgical procedures, this is chemically induced and they market this pill as, “You can have this privately in your own home.” “You come to us in the clinic and have the first pill, then you take the second pill at home and it’ll be just naturally and magically disappear.” That’s a lie. It is a very traumatic process and it is very different from a surgical, traditional abortion. Unfortunately, this is becoming the trend and we’re watching this very, very, very closely because women are being harmed by it.
TRACI GRIGGS: You mentioned a couple of times the difference between a chemical abortion and the medical procedure. What are the differences between the two?
PATRINA MOSLEY: Well, primarily abortions take place through surgical procedures, and that is a more physical, direct contact with the physician. And the second method is called medical abortion, which can be confusing when you talk about surgical abortion, because sometimes they interchange the words. When you see medical abortions/medication abortion, that is the chemical abortion method—that is an induction of drugs into the woman’s body to produce miscarriage-like symptoms to abort the child. So, surgical is physically removing the child from the woman through the uterus; the chemical is the woman actually ingesting drugs to induce her own abortion.
TRACI GRIGGS: This does seem to fly in the face of what we often hear, that abortion is something that’s private between a woman and her doctor. This sort of changes that doesn’t it, as far as where’s that caring, trusting relationship between a woman and a doctor if they’re sending her home?
PATRINA MOSLEY: Absolutely, it directly changes that. And this is what the abortion industry is calling the future of abortion here in America. This is why we are watching this very, very closely because when the pro-abortion side actually tells you the truth on something, that’s when you really want to sit up and pay attention and listen. They are very open and unashamed about the fact that chemical abortions are the way they want to go as far as future abortion advancements. So it’s no accident that today, it’s nearly 40 percent of all abortions. They’ve been heavily and aggressively marketing the abortion pill as the go-to method for women. There are many benefits to the abortion industry in them doing this. It is financially more expedient. Why would you pay for skilled surgeons and the overhead costs of a facility and receptionists and surgical tools when you can simply hand a woman pills? The financial cost to them is way more minimal than it is to do it the traditional way of abortion. So you have that.
Also, they want to expand abortion with pills that are easily transportable; you can expand your reach of how you’re getting abortions to women, which is sad. Just like you said, they always marketed [abortion] as a relationship between the woman and the doctor, and that’s completely not the case now. So when you think about the rise of chemical abortion, it’s really a business method of the abortion industry. This is not care for women, or else they would not be putting the burden of abortion completely on her, and they would not be separating her from a physical physician who is able to get her help if there are complications, which often there are. What they do not talk about is that chemical abortions have four times the rate of complications than surgical abortions. But yet this is the go-to method that they’re marketing to women so aggressively..
TRACI GRIGGS: They’re getting to a place now where they don’t even necessarily think that this woman needs to speak with a doctor. Isn’t that correct?
PATRINA MOSLEY: Absolutely. The future of abortion, according to the abortion industry, is tele-med abortion, which is another aspect that we’re continually watching. Tele-med abortion is where a woman Skypes with a physician, he claims to assess her via the Internet—or via some questionnaire form that she fills out—saying that she’s eligible for the abortion pill. And then he sends her a prescription to pick-up the abortion pills from a nearby clinic, and she gets the pills and she goes home and self-induces an abortion. So here, this is just another way of cutting out being in the physical presence of a physician. There’s no way that you can be accurately assessed over the Internet. A questionnaire is not substantial or adequate to assess a woman’s eligibility, or to see if she is in a healthy enough state to have that procedure. A woman can lie on a questionnaire; a questionnaire tells you nothing about their physical assessments. This further tells you this is not about women; this is about business. Abortion is a business, and they will do anything they can to protect their business and to expand their business, even at the cost of a woman’s safety.
I do want to point out that this type of method also has dangerous implications for sex-trafficking victims. As you’ve been saying, chemical abortion separates women from a physician. So this also separates sex-trafficking victims from having to see a physical physician, a physical person, who may be able to be aware of the signs that she’s in distress, or just women who are being pressured or coerced to abort. There’s no way to assess that when the future of your abortion industry is self-managed abortions at home. And once again, it’s just another way to show that they don’t care about women, that this is a business. As the abortion industry uses more women to gain more profit, you do have a lot of women who are willing to share their stories now, to say, “You know what, it wasn’t empowering for me. I don’t want to ever do that again. Don’t make the decision that I made,” and these stories are reaching people.
TRACI GRIGGS: So, let’s talk a little bit more. I appreciated the fact that you explained to us the term “medical abortion,” which of course would be what the pro-abortion people are using. “Chemical abortion” I think is a little better descriptor. But talk a little bit about some other terms that people often confuse. Is chemical abortion different from RU-486? Give us a little understanding of that.
PATRINA MOSLEY: Yes, good question. So the chemical abortion pill regimen contains two drugs. One is RU-486, which is also known as Mifepristone, so essentially it is the same. Chemical abortion is RU-486. But the second pill in the abortion pill regiment is Misoprostol. So it is a combination of Mifepristone/RU-486 and Misoprostol. So the woman takes the first drug in the first 24 hours, which is Mifepristone, and that drug actually cuts off the progesterone hormone in the woman’s body. That hormone nourishes the baby as it’s developing. And then after 24 to 48 hours, the woman takes the second pill—Misoprostol—and this is what actually induces the contractions to expel the fetal remains. So this is a multi-day process. This could take up to 14 days, and in the abortion pill guide, it says that it could take up to 30 days to complete.
So this is a process of heavy trauma on the body physically. Planned Parenthood has videos that show that this is safe and simple, and somehow the baby just disappears in the uterus, and that’s not true. But a lot of people also confuse the abortion pill with Plan B. I will tell you in simple, straightforward terms that the difference is Plan B is a contraceptive that is meant to prevent pregnancy if taken appropriately. The abortion pill is meant to end a pregnancy, terminate a pregnancy. So that’s the main difference between Plan B and the abortion pill; they are not the same. I do want to mention this caveat that when taking Plan B, if taken correctly yes, it is a contraceptive; it prevents a pregnancy from taking place. But if taken incorrectly and taken too late, it can cause an abortion..
TRACI GRIGGS: So let’s talk finally about reversal. There is a way, right, to medically intervene in a chemical abortion and potentially reverse that?
PATRINA MOSLEY: Yes, and we’ve seen it with 500 women who took this abortion pill reversal and saved their babies. So yes, it is possible. And the way this abortion pill reversal works is simply by pumping in more progesterone hormones into the woman’s body. So as I mentioned earlier, when you take the first pill Mifepristone, it cuts off the progesterone hormone in the woman’s body. So the way the abortion pill reversal works is to take progesterone supplements and that is what reverses the process. But you have to take this before you take the second pill of the abortion regimen, Misoprostol. It does not work if you’ve gone through both of the two-step process of an abortion pill. If you want to take an abortion pill reversal, it has to be taken before the Misoprostol. And we have seen women save their babies and it has been a huge blessing, and we’re happy to champion that and we want to see more of that. We’ve actually had about four states pass informed-consent laws on this, where abortion clinics have to tell women of the possibility of saving their babies should they choose to do a chemical abortion. So that is great news and we’re going to continue to progress on that in other states as well.
TRACI GRIGGS: Well, we’re just about out of time for this week. Before we go though Patrina, tell us where our listeners can go to read your publication, “The Next Abortion Battleground: Chemical Abortion.”
PATRINA MOSLEY: They can go to FRC.org/abortion pill, and they can see the paper there. They can also check out my blogs on the chemical abortion issue. They can check out those blogs at FRC.org/blogs.
TRACI GRIGGS: All right. Patrina Mosley with the Family Research Council, thank you so much for being with us on Family Policy Matters.
– END-
