{"id":82788,"date":"2016-05-05T14:51:01","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T18:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=82788"},"modified":"2018-02-20T10:27:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T15:27:00","slug":"told-abortion-pill-horrific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/told-abortion-pill-horrific\/","title":{"rendered":"I was told the abortion pill would be no big deal. It was horrific."},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the first-hand\u00a0account\u00a0below, Abby Johnson shares her very personal story of what happened to her during her medical abortion. She got her abortion pill from Planned Parenthood, who regularly sells the abortion pill to women. An animated video, explaining what happens during an abortion with the abortion pill is available here<\/a>. The video is narrated by an OBGYN.<\/i><\/p>\n

(AbbyJohnson.org<\/a>) In 2009, I had my tonsils removed. They had been bothering me for a while and no one knows what they are really for anyway\u2026so I figured I might as well have them out. I knew a lot of tonsil-less people, so I wasn\u2019t nervous at all about surgery.<\/p>\n

A couple days before I went \u201cunder the knife\u201d I had my pre-op visit with my ENT. We were going over a few things that I already knew.\u00a0 Then, he started talking about the risks. I guess I hadn\u2019t really thought there would be risks with a tonsillectomy. Severing vocal cords and being unable to speak\u2026damage to teeth\u2026extreme blood loss\u2026damage to my tongue\u2026and even death.<\/p>\n

\"Abby<\/a>

Abby Johnson, who had a medication abortion with the abortion pill and is telling her story.<\/p><\/div>\n

WHAT???\u00a0 Um, maybe I should just keep my annoying tonsils.\u00a0 I suddenly became very nervous.\u00a0 My doctor assured me that my fear were kind of irrational\u2026he just HAD to tell me those things.\u00a0 Needless to say, two days later, the tonsils came out.\u00a0 I had no problems.\u00a0 My throat has never been happier.<\/p>\n

Now, flashback to 2003.\u00a0 I was 23 years old, a volunteer at Planned Parenthood, a college student, a woman who was 8 weeks pregnant by her husband\u2026a husband she was divorcing.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want a baby so I had a solution\u2026abortion.\u00a0 I had already had one abortion and it was easy.\u00a0 Surely, this time it would be the same.\u00a0 Instead of a surgical abortion, I thought this time I would choose a more \u201cnatural\u201d way to abort\u2026the medication abortion.<\/p>\n

It was all pills and that seemed really simple.\u00a0 Everything was done at home.\u00a0 It was private, on your schedule, under your control and seemed less invasive.\u00a0 \u201cNothing worse than a heavy period,\u201d according to Planned Parenthood.\u00a0 Sounded pretty easy to me.\u00a0 So, I took the bait.\u00a0 I made and appointment and got the money together.\u00a0 The day came and it really felt like any other day.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t nervous\u2026I wasn\u2019t having surgery.\u00a0 This was going to be simple.<\/p>\n

READ: Hey, Teen Vogue, these 15 women say taking the abortion pill is nothing like having a period<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

At the clinic I filled out paperwork, had some basic lab work done, had an ultrasound (that I don\u2019t remember), and got put in a room for abortion counseling.\u00a0 I had brought someone with me, but I, of course, had to do all of this alone.\u00a0 No one except the patient was allowed past the waiting room.<\/p>\n

I remember my \u201ccounseling\u201d as if it happened yesterday. \u201cYou will have some heavy bleeding and period like cramps.\u00a0 None of it should last too long.\u00a0 You will be back to normal in a couple days,\u201d my counselor said.\u00a0 \u201cSounds good,\u201d I remember saying.\u00a0 And I guess it did sound pretty good.\u00a0 I could get rid of my biggest burden for $400.00 and a little cramping.\u00a0 Not a bad deal.\u00a0 There didn\u2019t appear to be any risks or side effects\u2026or if there were, we didn\u2019t go over them.\u00a0 Surely if there were risks, they would have told me about them, right?\u00a0 So the exchange was made.\u00a0 I gave them $400.00, and they gave me a Mifeprex pill and a brown bag of pills to take home.<\/p>\n

After taking the Mifeprex, I felt great!\u00a0 No side effects\u2026just like she said.\u00a0 The next day, I did as I was told.\u00a0 I ate a light lunch and took the 4 pills in my brown bag called Misoprostol.\u00a0 They told me these were the pills that would start my bleeding and cramping\u2026but nothing a few Ibuprofen couldn\u2019t take care of.\u00a0 I was told after taking the pills at home that I would probably start bleeding in about an hour.\u00a0 So, I made myself comfortable on the bed and turned the TV on.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes later, I started to feel pain in my abdomen unlike anything I had ever experienced.\u00a0 Then the blood came.\u00a0 It was gushing out of me.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t wear a pad\u2026nothing was able to absorb the amount of blood I was losing.\u00a0 The only thing I could do was sit on the toilet.\u00a0 I sat there for hours\u2026bleeding, throwing up into the bathroom trashcan, crying and sweating.\u00a0 I used to watch shows about childbirth.\u00a0 I would see these women in labor and they would be covered in sweat.\u00a0 I would always think, \u201cGosh, do they keep it hot in the delivery room, or what?\u201d\u00a0 But at that moment, sitting on the toilet, I knew it wasn\u2019t from heat\u2026it was from pain.<\/p>\n

READ: Finley’s parents are grateful abortion pill reversal saved their little girl<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

After several hours on the toilet, I desperately wanted to soak in the bath tub.\u00a0 I was hoping that would make me feel better.\u00a0 Maybe the warm water would help the cramping.\u00a0 Certainly it would make me smell better.\u00a0 I had vomit all in my hair and on my legs, not to mention how sweaty I was.\u00a0 I filled the tub and climbed in.\u00a0 It actually did feel pretty good.\u00a0 I remember closing my eyes and leaning my head back.\u00a0 I felt exhausted.\u00a0 The cramps kept coming, but the water helped soothe them somewhat.\u00a0 I opened my eyes after 15 minutes and was horrified.\u00a0 My bathwater was bright red.\u00a0 It looked like I was sitting in the middle of a crime scene.\u00a0 And I guess it was\u2026I had murdered my child.<\/p>\n

I knew I had to get up and wash the blood off of me.\u00a0 I stood up slowly and straightened out my body.\u00a0 As soon as I was completely upright, I felt a pain worse than any other I had experienced.\u00a0 I began to sweat again and felt faint.\u00a0 I grabbed on to the side of the shower wall to steady myself.\u00a0 Then I felt a release\u2026and a splash in the water that was draining beneath me.\u00a0 A blood clot the size of a lemon had fallen into my bath water.\u00a0 Was that my baby?\u00a0 I knew this huge clot was not going to go down the drain, so I reached down to pick it up.\u00a0 I was able to grasp the large clot with both hands and move it to the toilet.\u00a0 I stood in the warm shower for a few minutes\u2026feeling a little relief from the cramping.<\/p>\n

Then came the excruciating pain again.\u00a0 I jumped out of the shower and sat on the toilet.\u00a0 Another lemon sized blood clot.\u00a0 Then another.\u00a0 And another.\u00a0 I thought I was dying.\u00a0 This couldn\u2019t be normal.\u00a0 Planned Parenthood didn\u2019t ever tell me this could happen.\u00a0 This must be atypical.\u00a0 I decided that I would call them in the morning\u2026if I didn\u2019t die before then.\u00a0 It was around midnight and I had been in the bathroom for a good 12 hours.\u00a0 I knew I couldn\u2019t leave yet.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to lay in the bed\u2026the bleeding was too heavy.\u00a0 And the clots were still coming; not as often, but they were still coming.\u00a0 So, I decided to sleep on the bathroom floor that night\u2026right by the toilet.\u00a0 The cold floor felt good on my face. I was physically depleted, but I could not sleep.<\/p>\n