If a woman in Virginia wants a first-trimester abortion, she can make a telehealth appointment with an abortion clinic from the comfort of her couch. Abortion pills will be mailed to her home and she can take them there. In a few days, her baby will be gone.
She no longer has to drive or take a bus to an abortion clinic. She won’t encounter pro-lifers offering her support and information. She doesn’t have to get an ultrasound, which would confirm that she is pregnant, or tell her how far along the pregnancy is or make sure the embryo is growing in her womb and not her fallopian tube.
Though the process of obtaining the pills is simple, the abortion process can be difficult and painful. Medical professionals won’t be there if she loses too much blood or experiences other complications. It’s possible no one will be there for her at all. “It really should be called the home alone abortion,” said Kathy Clowes, director of the Front Royal Pregnancy Center.
“It’s devastating because it happens in a private setting where there’s no one there to counsel or to comfort the women,” said Patrick Novecosky, executive director of the Warrenton Pregnancy Center. “They’re left to grapple with the horrific aftermath of the abortion pill. They see their child that’s been expelled. The people who give them this medication don’t tell them what they will go through physically, emotionally, spiritually. I think our biggest job is not only to prevent this horror from happening (but) to reach women who have gone through it and to guide them to healing.”
According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, preliminary data shows that in 2020, medication or chemical abortion accounted for 54 percent of U.S. abortions. It’s the first time medication abortion became the majority of all abortions and it is a significant jump from 39 percent in 2017. Though the FDA has approved its use until up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, Guttmacher reports that “some providers administer medication abortion ‘off label’ after that point in pregnancy.”
Clowes believes the nature of medication abortions makes women more willing to have them. “Because the abortion pill is marketed as just a pill and not as invasive, people who would not consider doing surgical (abortion) are more willing to consider (it),” she said. But chemical abortions are more dangerous than surgical ones, with a higher risk of hemorrhage or incomplete abortion, as seen in one study from Finland where the overall incidence of adverse events was fourfold higher. “The official (FDA) limit (for the abortion pill) used to be seven weeks because there was a failure rate that increases with every week after seven,” said Clowes.
The abortion pill is actually two or more pills. The first, mifepristone, is an anti-progesterone drug that cuts off support to the unborn baby. It’s followed by misoprostol one or two days later, which induces labor.
If a woman has only taken the first pill, mifepristone, the unborn baby can be saved. “We’ve done abortion pill reversals and it’s around 65 percent effective,” said Clowes. “If people change their mind, they call the abortion pill reversal hotline and they connect them to the nearest doctor that does reversal, which (involves) prescribing progesterone. After a few days, they can come to us for a sonogram and if there’s a heartbeat, then they continue with progesterone.”
Some contraception, such as the emergency contraception Plan B, can cause an abortion by preventing the fertilized egg from implanting into the uterus. This possibility is clearly stated on the Plan B box. However, some organizations such as Planned Parenthood assert that pregnancy begins not with conception but with implantation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.”
Because abortions at home are much less visible, the hardest part for pregnancy resource centers is reaching the women at risk, said Novecosky. The Warrenton center partners with churches to get the word out, and they hope to begin testing for sexually transmitted diseases later this year as another way to reach women — “to catch them before they’re in a crisis,” he said.
They advertise through Google, but it’s difficult, said Novecosky. “This is my perception, but Google has been minimizing pregnancy centers across the country (with) the way that they rank their advertisers and their search results,” he said. “If you provide abortions, they will emphasize you, if you don’t provide abortions, they will minimize you and make it more difficult for women to find you.”
The Front Royal center relies on radio, Spotify and Pandora ads to reach women in crisis pregnancies, said Clowes. She’s hoping pro-lifers can share information, too. “There are lots of women at risk and lots of prayers needed, and if people can do anything on social media to say that there’s a safety net ready and waiting, that’s what they should be doing,” she said.
Both Clowes and Novecosky affirmed the necessity of praying for life. “I always say the first and most important thing you need to do for us is to pray,” said Novecosky. “Pray for our success, pray that the enemy, the devil, is hampered in his efforts to destroy human life, pray for our clients and pray for our volunteers, because ultimately it’s a spiritual battle. If we pray, we win. If we don’t pray, we lose. It’s really that simple.”
