{"id":219186,"date":"2020-03-04T10:44:52","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T16:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=219186"},"modified":"2020-05-15T13:43:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T18:43:48","slug":"promoting-illegal-abortion-pill-roulette-womens-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/promoting-illegal-abortion-pill-roulette-womens-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"In promoting illegal abortion pill websites, media plays Russian roulette with women\u2019s lives"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A recent report\u00a0published<\/a> by VICE appears to endorse<\/a> illegal and irresponsible abortion pill websites, revealing how the abortion industry advises women experiencing complications from illegal abortion pills to lie and tell emergency healthcare providers that they are having natural miscarriages. The article\u00a0walks the readers through the illegal process of a woman called “Tara,” who ordered abortion pills from an unregulated website promoting “self-managed” abortion.\u00a0 And the report contains multiple hidden agendas.<\/p>\n

Hidden Agenda #1: Promote taxpayer-funded, zero-deductible, “no-cost” abortion for patients.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tara* has health insurance.\u00a0But when she found out she was pregnant, she realized she still wouldn\u2019t be able to afford the cost of an in-clinic abortion: Since she hadn\u2019t met her $1,500 deductible, she would have to pay for the entire procedure out of pocket, which would cost\u00a0several hundred dollars<\/a>…. Then she remembered she had read about\u00a0Aid Access<\/a>, a website run by a doctor based in the Netherlands who prescribes\u00a0abortion pills for just $90<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Did VICE attempt to explain why an abortion pill shipped from outside the U.S. can cost hundreds less than one sold by an abortion facility? No. Instead of glorifying pills shipped online from random unregulated locations, VICE might have questioned why the price of the abortion pill at U.S. abortion facilities is so exceedingly high.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image:

FDA warns consumers to not buy abortion pills over the internet (Image: FDA)<\/p><\/div>\n

Hidden Agenda #2: Promote unregulated online abortions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From VICE:<\/p>\n

Aid Access is currently considered the most reputable resource for self-managing an abortion. While there are several sites where people can buy abortion pills online, Aid Access is the most affordable….<\/em><\/p>\n

Reputable<\/em>?\u00a0Nowhere in the VICE piece is it mentioned that\u00a0the Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter<\/a> to <\/span>Aid Access<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>to \u201cimmediately cease\u201d dispension of the drugs provided by an abortionist in the Netherlands and filled by a pharmacy in India. T<\/span>he unregulated group responded by expressing their\u00a0<\/span>intent<\/a> to defy the FDA\u2019s <\/span>warnings<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>In May 2019, <\/span>100 lawmakers<\/span><\/a> sent a <\/span>letter<\/span><\/a> to the FDA requesting the agency\u00a0<\/span>\u201ccontinue to conduct oversight\u201d of <\/span>Aid Access.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0And, despite the fact that the FDA has seized or shut down websites illegally dispensing other drugs, the government agency appears to be dragging its feet<\/a> in shutting down this unregulated site.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hidden Agenda #3: Remove the FDA’s safety protocols for the abortion pill.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While three\u00a0women VICE spoke to<\/a>\u00a0who used Aid Access were all ultimately successful in self-managing their abortions with pills from the site, some women online have described panicking about the wait time for the pills…. And others\u2014including one of the women in this story\u2014said that they had used the abortion pills past the\u00a0recommended time frame<\/a>\u00a0due to shipping delays…This is…the result of the many restrictions on medication abortion, which doctors and reproductive health experts say are\u00a0medically unnecessary<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

…Giving yourself a medication abortion doesn\u2019t have to include weeks of waiting for a package to arrive in the mail, reproductive health advocates say: If the FDA lifted the restrictions on mifepristone….<\/em><\/p>\n

The FDA’s safety system called REMS only permits the abortion pill to be prescribed at a hospital or facility which can properly date a pregnancy and which has the ability to handle complications or emergencies. Yet abortion organizations and their media allies like VICE are protecting dangerous websites not regulated by the FDA. Case in point, VICE mentions online support groups that direct women to these clandestine websites, and writes, “VICE is not including the names of the online forums so as not to make them a target for shuttering.”<\/p>\n