As its use to kill preborn babies has skyrocketed, the dispensing of the abortion pill has become a hot-button topic over the last few years. Recent statistics state that it accounted for “63% of all abortions in the formal health care system” in 2023. But that does not include the states that don’t keep abortion statistics or the people who order it online from dubious sources—a frighteningly increasing trend.
Though many women and pro-abortion organizations say that the abortion pill is the “perfect” solution to an undesired baby, we must teach the truth: It’s not only deadly for babies, but it’s traumatic and often dangerous for the moms.
Yet it’s not just pro-life people who understand this. We now see that Planned Parenthood employees know it, too, but they still choose to push it on unsuspecting mothers. A March 18, 2025, press release from American Life League discussed a recent comment from an employee of Planned Parenthood, who admitted the dangers.
In light of that, and because we know that mothers think taking a pill is an easy way out of a pregnancy, we want to highlight six things you may not know about the abortion pill. These eye-opening facts are ones you should ponder and then pass on, as you may just save a life.
1. Planned Parenthood agrees about the dangers of the abortion pill.
As the ALL press release states, Casi Scully, Planned Parenthood Keystone’s associate medical director, told Pennsylvania media, “If you’re accessing medication and you’re not sure where it’s coming from, it’s maybe not regulated. You don’t know exactly what it is. That can definitely be a problem. Potential complications can be bleeding, infection, those kinds of things.”
Complications include hemorrhaging, incomplete abortions, and even deaths. According to a USCCB fact sheet: “From September 2000 through December 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recorded 4,218 ‘adverse events’ caused by the process—including the deaths of 32 women.”
Additionally, studies have found that “the overall incidence of adverse events was fourfold higher in the medical [pill] compared with surgical abortion cohort (20.0% compared with 5.6%, P<.001). Hemorrhage (15.6% compared with 2.1%, P<.001) and incomplete abortion (6.7% compared with 1.6%, P<.001) were more common after medical [pill] abortion.”
2. The abortion pill is a two-pill regimen
A woman must first take mifepristone, which starves the preborn baby who has already implanted in her uterus. It cuts off his nutrition and oxygen and he eventually dies. Twenty-four to 48 hours later, in her own home and often alone, she must then take misoprostol, which expels the dead baby.
3. The expelling of the dead baby can be incredibly painful—emotionally and physically.
Many women are told that when the baby is expelled, it will be just like a “heavy period.” But this is not the case. Stories abound of women being in terrible physical pain, passing large clots, and even seeing their dead baby in the toilet. Lila Rose, founder of Live Action, recently reposted one woman’s heartbreaking story of what happened after she took the abortion pill. The woman stated, in part:
I was 7 weeks, 3 days yesterday and took my second dose of pills. . . . Last night during the peak of the cramps at 6:30, I went to the restroom and before I could even sit down a fair amount of liquid poured out along with a small sac probably about the size of a small blueberry. It was mostly clear/white with a dark red spot in the middle that was very very clearly contracting like a heartbeat. It beat for probably 30-45 seconds then nothing and that literally shattered me. I have never felt this way and I feel so much regret. I don’t even know how what I saw is possible and I can’t find anyone talking about this happening. I’m so confused and feel unbelievably guilty.
Hearing her regret and anguish makes us even more determined to tell the truth and teach the dangers of the abortion pill.
4. Anyone can easily get the pill through online vendors.
In its groundbreaking report entitled Beneath the Surface: Exposing the Abortion Pill Drug Cartel, American Life League uncovered the terrible truth that foreign sources are mailing the abortion pill to anyone, and they’re teaching them how to request it anonymously. This means that young teens can order it, that men who don’t want the responsibility of a child can order it, and that human traffickers can order it.
Think these are just possible storylines from a bad fiction novel? Think again. All of this and more have already happened.
5. The pill will not effectively terminate the life of a baby in an ectopic pregnancy (a baby who has implanted outside the uterus).
The warning label says as much. A baby who has implanted outside the uterus, most commonly in the fallopian tube, cannot survive. And should the fallopian tube rupture, which is what happens as the baby grows, the mother’s life could be jeopardized as well. The only way to know if a mother is experiencing an ectopic pregnancy is for her to be seen and undergo testing by a medical professional. Should she order the pill online and take it at home, she may attribute any bleeding she experiences to the pill. This could put her life in grave danger.
6. You may be able to reverse the effects of the mifepristone.
Many women have taken the first pill only to regret their decision and wish it could be undone. We don’t often get a chance to take back our actions, but in this case, it is possible. Abortionpillreversal.com offers hope and has saved the lives of thousands of babies, like Ashley’s. If you regret your decision after ingesting mifepristone, call 877-558-0333 and ask for help. It may not be too late. The sooner you call, the better. Someone is on call 24/7 and will phone in a prescription for progesterone, which may save your baby’s life.
The abortion pill is a dangerous regimen that kills babies and harms mothers. As pro-life people, we care about both moms and babies, and we don’t want to see either of them hurt or killed. That’s why we go to great lengths to discuss these truths and to help mothers make better choices. As St. Gregory the Great once said, “The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.” And so we teach out of love so that others may learn love.
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Great and timely article – thanks for it.
Please publicize this video in youtube from Dr. Anthony Levatino M.D. Gynecologist Obstetrician and former abortionist detailing the horrors of abortion procedures, including the pill, at the different stages of pregnancy. Show it especially to young women who are not told in school the true details of abortion at the different stages; in this video age this is a most effective way to combat the killings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hqoLEhrGmQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFZDhM5Gwhk&t=269s
A minor point perhaps, but as a retired English teacher, word usage and language were/are an essential part of my life. Thank you for using the term “preborn” rather than the more frequently used “unborn.” Perhaps it’s more a matter of connotation than of denotation, but the former term strikes me as more precise.
I am glad you did not teach my children. “Pre-born” or “pre born” is not even a real word. It’s an intellectually dishonest weasel word meant to appeal to emotion. Only the absolute dregs of humanity fall for that nonsense.
Obviously there are a lot of dumb dumbs walking around who never received a proper education because they were, sadly, forced to attend your classes.
According to Merriam-Webster, it is indeed a word, and I’ll take their expertise over yours, as crushing as that might be to your ego. Thanks for your comment anyway. Your tolerance and charity are almost as staggering as your attempts to appear intellectually superior to people who hold viewpoints with which you disagree.
And you, John K., are one such “dumb dumb”. All you had to do was run a quick search. You’d find that “preborn” is a word, it’s in dictionaries, and it’s been used since 1962. It does not appeal to emotion; it describes a fact (pre = before, thus “before birth”). For examples of emotionally manipulative and disingenuous language, see “reproductive health” and “reproductive rights” and “reproductive freedom”, etc.
I knew you would say that. It didn’t exist as a word prior to 1962. Therefore it was MADE UP in 1962. Therefore it is not a real word. Just make believe nonsense used to appeal to people who led with their sad little emotions rather than intellect. Use it all you like, it identified you as intellectually challenged.
How is your worthless cancer kid doing? Lol
You were unnecessarily rude in this post and any point you wished to make was overshadowed by that. Be kind!
I am frankly shocked that medical doctors would actually prescribe this product, as they take an oath to preserve life, not destroy it.
I think this path to “freedom from having to give birth and possibly parent a child” could lead to even more violence. If a woman is willing to kill an unborn child, is it possible that that she will someday be willing to kill her child who is born, but not exactly what she wanted a child to be? Or for that matter, murder other people who interfere with her plans for her life?
Also, is a woman who uses a chemical abortion at risk for killing herself after experiencing the expulsion of the fetus?
Violence begets violence.
Apparently, many doctors no longer take the Hippocratic Oath.
This article allows folks to misrepresent what Planned Parenthood said and intended. They acknowledged that if you get the pills from a source you don’t know, you take a chance that the drugs are not of the correct dosage. From this folks contort the meaning to say the Planned Parenthood thinks it is dangerous in general. This is just disingenuine and hurts the legitimacy of the cause. I don’t like abortion but this twisting of the truth is simply not helpful. Sadly, I have found that it is however common and even turns me away from the cause because twisting prople’s words and meaning is just dishonest. I’m quite disappointed.
Supporters of the “Father of IVF” will have to use this argument, because the babies destroyed by this pill are not more developed than the 1.5 million to 1.8 million human IVF embryos discarded each year in the USA.
It’s sounds to me like the developing children killed by these medications are definitely further along in gestation than the embryos discarded in IVF. Not that our worth is determined by age. We have the same value at the beginning as at the end of life.
The Catholic Church, wounded and weakened as it has been since the 1960s by all the destabilizing changes instituted by episcopal leaders, has nevertheless been the major source of light on the subject of “reproduction” in during the last 60 years of madness.
“…the abortion pill is the ideal solution to an unwanted baby.” Resoundingly wrong!
The contraceptive pill, however, which prevents fertilisation of an ovum, certainly is, and does not carry in its modern day forms the horrendous complication rate compared with the abortion pill. Catholic teaching on contraception was conceived long before the processes involved in establishing pregnancy were fully understood. It was not until 1972 that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists clarified pregnancy when it formally identified conception as “… the implantation of a fertilised ovum in the womb”, a process which takes place some 6-7 days after fertilisation. The fertilised ovum takes this time to make its journey from the abdominal cavity to the womb via the Fallopian tube. Many fertilised ova never implant in the womb as the result of various hormone irregularities and are simply lost. It is time the Church took a serious re-look at contraception in light of the scientific truth – accepting that fertilisation does not represent inevitable or established human life but rather, potential human life, just as a spermatozoan or unfertilised ovum does. Successful implantation in the womb, however, does represent the inevitability of human life, the very reason why a woman seeks abortion. It may be that anti-fertilisation does not carry the same degree of moral responsibility as does the destruction or prevention of implantation. The sad thing about this whole ungodly mess is that the civil law abandoned its erstwhile role as the moral underwriter of Judeo-Christian morality when American law courts interposed their opinions on these matters in the liberalisation of both the anti-contraception and anti-abortion laws which once governed much of human society. Fortunately, the Civil Law in more recent times in many countries in the western world is re-writing its law and stepping back from the legislation which permits killing preborn babies. Western nations need to stand up and practise the morality they once embraced. Prevention of unwanted pregnancy by the contraceptive pill is far more responsible and morally acceptable than destroying implanted, inevitable unwanted human life.
Contraceptive failure is what brought us feticide on demand.
Hormonal contraceptives have a back up abortifacient property in the event of conception.
mrscracker. Not all oral contraceptives are also abortifacients. Abortifacient pills are conveniently referred to as “contraceptive” – they actually destroy implantation
Chemical contraception is also a mortal sin. Women are more prone to cancer and other abnormalities the longer they use unnatural methods to prevent or kill their children. Abstinence is the only way to prevent pregnancy and disease. And it fits with God’s commands. Win-win.
I always find the Cathoic faith’s need to impose its religious beliefs on other people to be both over reaching and hurtful to the cause of reducing abortion. Government should not be used to impose one person’s religion on another person. Concern about abortion is in fact a faith based issue. There no independent facts that say there is a soul in a fertilized egg. We would be best served educating non-believers and providing programs to push adoption. God wants volunteers not conscripted followers. So far abortion has gone up thanks to the efforts to ban the abortion pill routine. Not good. Governments should stick to science based safety issues and avoid individual rights even if the individual right hurts themselves menatlly or physically.
Concerns about killing preborn children is a “faith based issue”? Amazing.
Consider visiting a site such as Secular Pro-Life, which summarizes its approach as follows:
1. The human zygote, embryo, and fetus are all human organisms; they are early developmental stages of a human’s life cycle.
2. All human organisms are morally relevant.
3. It’s generally immoral to kill humans.
4. Bodily rights aren’t enough to justify elective abortion.
“Government should not be used to impose one person’s religion on another person.”
Have you been around the past, say, twenty years?
A human being’s life begins at the point of fertilization (sperm meets egg) in the fallopian tube. That little cell is now a human being. And that fertilized egg, that little human, rapidly begins the process of becoming a human embryo. It is at the embryonic state that a child implants in the uterus.
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Contraceptive pills might prevent fertilization by suppressing the release of an egg, but they also prevent implantation of the embryonic human being if an egg does “escape” and is fertilized.
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Ob/gyns can define pregnancy however it is they want, but they are doing so for social and political reasons.
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Incidentally, we are awash in all manner of hormonal contraceptives and have been for decades. Abortion rates remain stubbornly high. It’s interesting how Planned Parenthood, a major abortion provider, also readily promotes all manner of hormonal contraceptives. I rather doubt they would do that if The Pill actually cuts into their business.
Yes, Mrs Hess. Physicians and scientists invent all sorts of creative definitions when they have a reason to. Euphemisms, too
Mrs Hess, Abortion rates remain very high because women do not choose to take contraceptive pills which are in fact very successful in preventing unwanted pregnancy in over 90% of takers. In those who become pregnant when taking the pill it is highly likely that they haven’t taken it as directed and missed on achieving the required dosage. Incidently, I am not a gynaecologist or obstetrician but am a medical scientist (member of the NY Academy of Science and the AAAS). The position you take is in accord with the Catholic Church’s out of date teachings that need to be revisited in the light of the truth. All scientific truth is but part of God’s ongoing revelation of the magnificence of what He has created. It is the misuse of these God-given truths by human beings that is the problem. Consider the incredible change the microscope brought to the understanding of disease which dispelled millennia of belief that disease was a visitation from God himself. Why God chooses to continue to reveal Himself with different advances over the millennia I don’t know. However, the church does have to keep up with God’s revelation and act accordingly. That can take a long time – like the 200years it took to accept Copernicus’ and Galileo’s proven truths that the sun, not God, was the centre of the universe.
All contraceptive pills thin the lining of the uterus, making implantation of an embryo (a “fertilized ovum” is not developed enough to implant–that’s why IVF doctors wait until they develop into embryos…) far less likely. There is no easy way to tell if an egg has escaped the mechanism of action that suppresses ovulation–but just because a pill has not suppressed ovulation does not mean that the uterine lining has not been affected.
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You are correct in that patient compliance with the drug is not optimal.
Oh, by the way, medical researchers gave us a devastating pandemic a few years back, so I’m not particularly impressed by “medical research” these days.
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The Church may not have been correct on the obit of the earth around the Sun; she is very correct in her teaching on contraception–it is a poison that destroys lives, families, and societies.
Does the Catholic World Report have stories about other murder weapons that sometimes also kill the killer? Let’s say a gunman was mowing down a schoolyard full of kids, when the gun misfires in a way that causes it to explode, sadly taking down the gunman.
Oh, and if we can imagine that women are under social and psychological pressure to abort their children, should we not also extend that understanding to our hypothetical gunman?
Does it really matter that the victims in one case can run and play and speak, and in the other they cannot?
Mother’s are a victim of feticide also.