Pro-life video of the day: Flea market abortion pills
by Hans Johnson
With the passage of the bill banning abortions after 20 weeks in Texas, some see a boom in the black market sale of Cytoec, which is meant for the prevention of stomach ulcers but is also used to induce abortion (i.e., these are abortion pills). One customer was interviewed by Bloomberg:
“You’d be amazed at how many people, young people, are taking those pills,” said Erlinda Dasquez, a 29-year-old mother of four who has done so herself. “I probably know 12 to 20 people who have done this. My cousin just went to the flea market a few months ago.”
Andrea Ferrigno, a vice president of Whole Woman’s Health, which runs a network of abortion facilities, told the New York Times: “The women see it as a ‘pill to make my period come’. Often, in their minds it’s not abortion.”
From BuzzFeed:
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Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Of course they’re going to make it about the Texas law. The reality is that these black markets exist even when “safe & legal” abortion is available– and the pills are for early abortions, not abortions after 20 weeks.
It’s dangerous on so many levels. For example, PP is encouraging young people not to communicate with their parents (been doing that since the 80’s at least) and so a young woman or teen may take the pills and if there is an adverse reaction, the parents may have no idea what or if anything is going on. Also, let’s face it: even older women lie to themselves about their cycle, the date of conception, and how far along they are in their pregnancy. Unsupervised pill popping isn’t safe, and it isn’t pro-lifers’ fault. It’s not safe, even if everyone in the whole wide world were pro-abortion.
“The women see it as a ‘pill to make my period come’. Often, in their minds it’s not abortion.”
Yeah. Letting them go on thinking that instead of trying to educate them is like, totally reasonable. Especially when the pill isn’t safe after a certain point in pregnancy. Ignorance is bliss, in Abortion Land!
Kelsey is correct. Misoprostil has been the major black market abortion pill all around the world, and has been touted on “women’s health” websites for a long time. Hospitals have always been forced to complete failed home abortions. Legalized abortion did not stop this. Pretty much all Buzzfeed was doing was putting out a free commercial, informing their constituency of the easy alternative. Yes, this really is a commercial in disguise, and the fact that they did this might adjust your opinion of Buzzfeed as a news source.
When I practiced in retail pharmacy (ambulatory care setting) I would not fill a prescription for misoprostil (Cytotec) without the non-steroidal drug with which it was supposed to be used. It was contraindicated for use in pregnant women. Such prescriptions for misoprostil alone were generally not legimate, and were for the purpose of home abortions.
Chemical abortions have been a major method touted in countries where abortion is considered morally wrong. Women are sold this drug to “start the menses” particularly in South American countries and the Philippines. It makes the abortion seem less wrong. Thanks to Hans Johnson for highlighting that significant marketing point in his article.
It’s just beyond absurd to try to tie this type of behavior to abortion restrictions. in a state with no waiting period and no parental notification laws I knew girls in high school (I graduated in 2001) who got their free birth control pills from PP and used them as ‘Plan B’ by not taking them daily but rather taking 4 or 5 after sex or ‘to make their period start’. None of them considered this an ‘abortion’ or even ‘dangerous’, and certainly very few of their parents even knew they owned birth control pills, much less were taking them so. I remember Senior year one girl ended up pregnant and, despite having set up an appointment for an abortion ‘didn’t want an abortion’. So she starved herself for a week and drank herbal teas made from cohosh and other plants know to cause abortions and/or induce labor. Sure enough she ‘miscarried’ a couple days before her abortion appointment. Then she told everyone she lost the baby due to a miscarriage and she never considered herself to have had an abortion. Even in countries where abortion is completely availible and non-stigmatized women still do stupid stuff to self-abort, seek out ‘illegal’ abortions through other-than-doctors, and hide pregnancies only to kill their newborn. Stupid people do stupid stuff, the number of women stupid enough to inject their wombs with coke to abort doesn’t have anything to do with laws for or against abortions, it just has to do with the fact that sometimes stupid people breed. Women stupid enough to buy cytoec at a flea market and take a handful to ‘start their periods’ has to do with idiots having sex, not abotion restrictions.
Of course the reason the media has been trumpeting this story is because they believed that most abortion “clinics” in Texas would have to shut down because of the “draconian” bill.
Of course, we know no such luck on that idea.