“The swift establishment of an early medical abortion service at the start of this crisis has been a phenomenal achievement in women’s healthcare, enabling women to safely access the care they need at home”
“It’s clear that this framework provides huge health benefits to women with minimal associated risks”
“It’s Very Safe”
These are the comments made by a Director at The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and Associate Clinical Director from Marie Stopes UK about the new ‘DIY’ home abortion regulation.
They sound reassuring right? Medical abortion seems like a simple procedure with minimal risks and most importantly it sounds like a very safe method to terminate a pregnancy. But my question is; is any medical procedure completely free of any risk?
Some of you reading this blog may have already heard about the new regulation permitting women to have a ‘DIY’ abortion and I am aware that many of you haven’t so I will give a brief overview.
How did it Start?
On March 30th 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 global Pandemic the Government managed to sneak in a new law change that permits women to have abortions at home without any physical assistance whatsoever; this new radical abortion (what they are calling ‘pills by post’) is causing a lot of unease within the pro-life community and many pro-life organisations are campaigning to get this law change reversed as many feel the government exploited a public health crisis (If you haven’t read our blog called D.I.Y Abortion you can read it here).
The sad thing is, this rule change has nothing to do with the COVID-19 breakout and the risk abortion providers and lobbyists claim it poses to women’s health; it sounds more like another cover up to impose their radical abortion laws.
The first steps towards full DIY abortion was actually taken back in 2018 (it has been in the works for a long time) when Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, passed legislation enabling women to take the second pill, (Misoprostol) at home for fears that women would experience the trauma of bleeding on their way home from the clinic.
Although this new legalisation appeared to be a better plan to help protect women and their physical and emotional health, unfortunately this is further from the truth.
“I ended up lying in the bath trying to keep the pains at bay and I didn’t get much sleep that night. It was a lot worse than I’d expected. The pain the physical process was horrible”
“There was no routine follow-up call with a doctor or a nurse to check how things had gone”
“I understood I was going to have cramps, but I didn’t realise just how bad it was going to be. Two hours after I took the tablets, I started bleeding; I didn’t look because I knew it would really upset me. About six hours later the pain was unbearable. I was lying on my bathroom floor, curled in a ball. I was sweating, my temperature was 39.8, I couldn’t move. I had diarrhea, I was being sick, I was shivering, shaking, sweating. I thought I was going to die”
These are some accounts from women who spoke to a newspaper about their home abortion experience.
I have shared some stories that I have come across about DIY abortion since it was legalised on 30th March this year.
A woman from the Midlands took the abortion pills at 28 weeks gestation (6 months) that’s four weeks past the legal limit and 18 weeks past the ten-week limit for at home abortion. This decision led to the woman having a still-birth. (This case is currently being investigated read the full story here).
A 27 year old mother of three took the abortion pills at home. However after taking a pregnancy test three weeks later (as instructed by the abortion providers) she was shocked when it came out positive. This woman will need to a have a follow-up surgical abortion procedure to terminate the pregnancy as the medical abortion seems to have not worked. (read full story)
A woman from India has died along with her unborn baby after taking DIY home abortion drugs. The woman suffered from excessive bleeding which led to her untimely death. According to the Mumbai Mirror the woman’s husband with the help of his parents and a friend obtained the abortion drugs from a medical representative. She leaves behind an 18 month-old daughter.
My thoughts….
All of these stories are awful to read, not just because of the horror these women have suffered from this act of abortion. It's awful because babies have died; this is the biggest tragedy. They were the innocent ones in all this. Yet the abortion providers these women trusted in to provide them with the 'safe' abortion pills at home, have yet again let them down.
Unfortunately the pain and suffering they have experienced can and I believe will have a long-lasting impact on their physical and emotional health.
By no means am I shocked by these outcomes, as many pro-lifers warned that situations like this would happen. Stories like a woman aborting her baby at 28 weeks would have never existed if she was given a face-to-face consultation; the clinic would have known she was way over the ten week limit and she would have had a scan to work out the correct gestation.
What if she didn’t know she was so far gone? What if she was vulnerable and had a learning difficulty? she may have not have understood how to calculate the dates from her last period; who knows.....we can only wonder at this point.
You see the problem with abortion providers saying things like “it’s just pregnancy tissue” or “it's blood clots” is they are missing out the key information that women need to know; they are not telling them that at 28 weeks gestation they are actually carrying a fully formed viable baby who has a 90% chance of survival (I mean why would they, that would lose them money)
The outcome for each of these women were different but the risks were still the same. They all chose to have an abortion at home without the necessary medical skills and standards which ultimately led to many complications.
Despite all this, abortion providers have insisted that home abortion is minimal risk.
Can You See Now….
This is what home abortion is doing to our women; does this sound like a phenomenal achievement in women’s healthcare to you? I am sure many of you reading this blog will agree that women and children losing their lives through abortion is by no means an achievement, let alone a phenomenal one at that. But I digress….
I watched a film recently that had an abortion scene in it (quite a graphic one too) The story-line was based on the life of a teenage girl who had just been accepted into college in another city only to end up getting into a relationship with an older a guy during the summer break and falling pregnant.
Although the scene was very uncomfortable to watch; it was realistic. More films should have story-lines about abortion. People need to see it, especially teenage girls who are considering having a home abortion.
Truthfully, this movie scene was no different from what the women in the news articles said they went through. Yes I know it was acting. However, it was in fact very real and women all over the world are being affected by traumatic abortions.
Real people, in a Real crisis, in Real pain.
Before I end the blog some of you may be wondering what medical abortion is and the risks involved. So to help you better understand, I have tried my best to explain what medical abortion is and how it works - I have listed the risks too.
Medical Abortion
What is it?
Medical abortion is medication that is used to end a pregnancy and in order to qualify for a medical abortion a woman must be no more than 10 weeks gestation at the time she takes the pills - this process is known as early medical abortion (EMA).
What does it involve?
The treatment involves taking two different pills at two different times. The first pill (Mifepristone) is usually taken at a hospital or a clinic. This pill blocks the hormone Progesterone which is what helps the pregnancy to continue. The second pill would usually be taken 24 hours later this is called Misoprostol; this pill causes contractions to the womb so it can expel the pregnancy within 4-6 hours of consumption.
So what are the risks?
According to the health, safety environment (HSE) website around 2 or 3 out of every 100 people who have had an abortion at less than 9 weeks pregnant may experience emotional and physical side effects.
I have listed the physical side-effects (I will be looking into the emotional effects for another blog post so look out for that).
Physical After-effects of Abortion
Pain and cramping (studies have reported that over 70% of women will experience these symptoms after abortion)
· Bleeding
· Dizziness
· Nausea
· Chills
· Diarrhea
· Vomiting
· Fever
· Weakness
Serious complications such as excessive vaginal bleeding, damage to the womb, or sepsis: this happens to about 1 out of 1,000 women.
There is a risk of incomplete abortion that will lead to needing another procedure to remove parts of the pregnancy that have stayed in the womb; this happens to about 70 out of a 1,000 women at an average rate of 7%
Long-term effects
· Damage to the Cervix
· Damage to the Uterus
· Higher risk of premature baby
· Increased risk of pre-term births (the more abortions you have)
There is also a small risk of getting an infection after abortion – This can lead to long term pelvic pain due to PID (Pelvic Inflammatory disease) which can cause infertility and ectopic pregnancy, and the fatality rates for ectopic pregnancy are higher in women aged 15-19 than older women.
Other things to be concerned about now 'DIY' abortion is legal
· Taking the pills at the wrong gestation (women are likely to underestimate or even over estimate)
· Taking pills at the wrong time intervals (i.e. taken before 24 hours interval or after)
· Surgical Intervention needed due to no medical assistance on hand
· Failed abortion, which may lead to a follow-up abortion procedure
· Women in abusive relationships being coerced into taking the pills
· Using the pills too late
· Someone else ordering pills for a minor or abuse victim
As you can see there are many things to consider when someone orders these ‘pills by post’ for a DIY abortion (medical abortion) and these are not even all of them.
I want to point out that I am not sharing these risks to scare anyone, the main purpose is to raise awareness by keeping you informed about abortion law changes and the implications of abortion.
What can I do now?
You can raise as much awareness as possible; you can share this information with your friends and families, sign petitions, join pro-life campaigns or write to your local MP.
Most importantly, you can pray for these women and all the other women who feel like abortion is their only option. If we can show these women that we “Love them both” (mother and baby) I believe this will empower them to Choose Life.
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.
I have linked some useful websites below where you can find information about abortion risks, pro-life news, campaigns and petitions:
Love & Blessings,
Choose Life Ministries
Recommended Movies:
Reference
Houghton. M 2017 Pregnancy & Abortion Your Choice
www.malcolmdown.co.uk
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