Analysis. The Biden administration began the new year amid cheers from abortion activists. Driving this discomforting celebration was a new Food & Drug Administration (FDA) decision to ease access to abortion pills at pharmacies. But that wasn’t the only gift this holiday season.
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On the last business day before Christmas, the FDA posted a memo clarifying that it does not consider Plan B One-Step, a controversial “morning-after pill,” to be a potential abortifacient. According to the FDA: “Evidence does not support that the drug affects implantation or maintenance of a pregnancy after implantation, therefore it does not terminate a pregnancy.” This means that the packaging that accompanies these pills, which the Obama administration approved for over-the-counter use by all ages in 2013, will no longer warn consumers that it could lead to an abortion.
A New York Times article reports that agency officials deny the timing of this change was politically motivated, but Students for Life of America is among those that have balked at the change. “For years we’ve been saying that the packaging indicated abortions could take place,” Students for Life said. “Their answer is to just change the box.”
Beyond Plan B, some pro-life observers are wary about how this could affect treatment of another emergency contraceptive: Ella. The Times article highlights that Ella’s prescription status in not affected by the FDA’s Plan B change, but it notably alludes to studies suggesting that this potent drug, too, is “highly unlikely to prevent implantation of a fertilized egg.” However, according to a detailed resource by Focus on the Family, Ella is “chemically related to mifepristone (RU-486), the ‘abortion pill,’ and works by a similar mechanism of action.”
Mifepristone was approved for abortions in the U.S. by the Clinton administration in 2000. This “abortion pill” in combination with a drug called misoprostol causes what abortion activists prefer to call “medication abortion.” Essentially, the first drug interferes with a woman’s progesterone hormone to halt fetal growth, and the second completes the termination of the prenatal child. Pro-life voices — my own included — assert that “chemical abortion” is a more appropriate term, because the procedure amounts to using drugs to destroy a person.
Controversy has swirled around this form of abortion for decades, and that controversy is intensifying. Why? Well, for one thing, there is more research calling into question its safety for the women to whom it is marketed. For example, the Charlotte Lozier Institute cites peer-reviewed research that reveals a more than 500% increase in emergency-room visits following chemical abortions in recent years. The institute also says its data suggests that chemical abortion is more likely than surgical abortion to cause complications.
Still, chemical abortion is growing by leaps and bounds. According to Guttmacher Institute, an offshoot of Planned Parenthood, these abortions have grown from 6 percent of total abortions in 2001, to 24 percent in 2011, to now 53 percent in 2020 — a majority of all abortions!
It’s no wonder abortion activists want to knock down any restrictions to RU-486. It’s no wonder they cheered the FDA’s paving the way for retail pharmacies to dispense the drug by prescription, rather than keeping its availability restricted to clinics and health care offices. It’s notable, too, that the U.S. Department of Justice — in a memo dated the Friday before Christmas — assured the U.S. Postal Service that it can carry abortion drugs by mail.
Again, the battle over chemical abortion is intensifying. Indeed, just last month, abortion allies in Congress advanced a resolution that would even support the FDA in moves to preempt state efforts to guard against abortion pills.
Will you pray today for life and the light of truth to prevail in this battle? Share your prayers and scriptures below.
Aaron Mercer is a contributing writer with two decades of experience in the Washington, D.C., public-policy arena. Photo Credit: Tessa Rampersad on Unsplash.