As Abortion Industry Regulations Fall, VALUE THEM BOTH Amendment needed more than ever
The abortion industry’s mantra when fighting every reasonable regulation of their business practices is “abortion should be between a woman and her doctor.”
Now, after successfully lobbying the FDA to remove the longstanding in-person physician requirement for the administration of abortion pills, the abortion industry has proven once again that it is more concerned about profits and expediency than the safety of women.
“Considering the significant documented risks to a woman’s body from the chemical abortion cocktail, the abortion industry’s claim that physician oversight is unnecessary rings hollow,” said Danielle Underwood, KFL Director of Communications. “This places women in the dangerous position of monitoring their own potentially fatal complications of a ‘DIY abortion’ and knowing when to seek emergency help.”
The FDA’s most recent Adverse Events Summary for chemical abortions reports serious risks for women from the two-pill process, noting that 26 women have died after using the chemical cocktail that induces death for the preborn baby. Since 2000, over 1,000 women have been hospitalized for potentially fatal complications like missed ectopic pregnancies.
“The abortion industry knows of over 4,000 women who have reported severe complications after using the abortion pill including hospitalizations, needed blood transfusions and severe infections like sepsis. These complications all occurred during physician-supervised chemical abortions, when they could be identified early and medical advice provided quickly. No one is certain of how many adverse reactions go unreported,” said Underwood.
Even under “normal circumstances,” the abortion pill causes bleeding for an average of 9-16 days but may last up to 30 days. According to the FDA, “excessive vaginal bleeding usually requires treatment by uterotonics, vasoconstrictor drugs, curettage, administration of saline infusions, and/or blood transfusions.”
In Kansas, a bi-partisan majority of the Kansas legislature passed the abortion facility sanitation and inspection law in 2011, which included a safety protocol for the administration of abortion pills by requiring in-person physician administration as an important safeguard for women. This law was just struck down in December as a direct consequence of the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling in Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt, which created a virtually unlimited and unregulatable abortion industry in our state, putting women at risk of serious health complications from dangerous do-it-yourself abortions.
This underscores, again, the critical importance of voters passing the VALUE THEM BOTH Amendment on August 2, 2022, to help protect existing state laws that have safeguarded women from an unregulated abortion industry.