Archbishop Paul Coakley, President, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bishop Daniel Thomas, Chairman, USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, have released a “Nationwide Invitation to Prayer & Action” inviting Catholics to “join a focused effort of prayer and action to stop the spread of abortion pills.”
The initiative began Aug. 18 and will continue through Oct. 31, which includes the monthlong commemoration of “Respect Life Month” observed each October by the Catholic Church in the United States.
Since the Food and Drug Administration has allowed abortion pills to be prescribed in telehealth appointments, sold in neighborhood pharmacies, and sold online, the abortion pill is leading to a tragic climb in abortion rates in the country.
In the statement, Archbishop Coakley and Bishop Thomas call Catholics to respond to the situation by invoking the intercession of St. Joseph, Defender of Life. See the prayer in both English and Spanish here. In addition, the Bishops say that by signing up for Respect Life Prayer and Action, “participants can learn about the danger of abortion pills, and can send messages to pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies that are involved.”
Read the Bishops’ statement in full here.
What Is the Abortion Pill? USCCB Releases Information Sheet
To accompany the respect life initiative, the USCCB has assembled an informational “one-pager” in both English and Spanish for parishes and all the faithful to use to spread awareness about the abortion pill, the most common form of abortion in the United States. Download the resource here.
Continue reading to hear the compelling testimony of Toni McFadden and her experience with the abortion pill.
Despite Growing Use, Abortion Pill Carries Serious Risks, Including Trauma of Flushing a Baby Down the Toilet, Pro-life Experts Say
Excerpts from a 2023 article from OSV News.
By Maria Wiering
(OSV News) – More than 20 years ago, Toni McFadden took the abortion pill to end her pregnancy. She was a high school senior, the “good girl” in her family, and she did not want anyone to find out.
She was about seven weeks pregnant when she took the regimen’s first drug — mifepristone — at an abortion clinic. She was sent home to take the second drug — misoprostol — at home. The doctor told her to expect bleeding like a heavy period. When she took the misoprostol, nothing happened. She called the clinic and was briskly instructed to take a back-up dose she had been given. She did, and there was just a little spotting — but, since she was told the baby was only the “size of a pea,” she thought maybe that was it.
A month-and-a-half later, she was sitting in class when she started to feel “excruciating” pain and began passing blood clots the size of her fist. She realized what was happening, but was unprepared for the pain intensity or blood loss. She called her mother, told her she was experiencing bad menstrual cramping, and went home to sit on the toilet and lay on her bed. She does not remember how long she bled, or if she saw her baby as she passed it in the toilet. “There’s a lot of trauma with that,” she explained. She does remember laying curled up, in the fetal position.
McFadden, now in her 40s, has become a Christian and pro-life activist. A Pennsylvania native, she continues to share her story amid a national conversation about the availability of “chemical” or “medication” abortion, as well as the protocol some doctors use to interrupt the first pill’s effect, which can save the unborn baby.
“I think people think, ‘Oh it’s just a pill, it’s really easy,'” McFadden told OSV News. “No, there’s something different with this procedure, because with the other procedures, in the second and third trimester, the doctors are doing that to you. With the pill, I took it. Like, I put these pills in my mouth. So, when I had to come to the reality that I took the life of my own child, that hits a little bit different than me being sedated, laying on a table and the doctor took my child.”
In the two decades since McFadden’s abortion, the abortion pill regimen has remained largely the same — a dose of the drug mifepristone followed by misoprostol 24 to 48 hours later — but protocols around it have loosened dramatically, from initially taking place at a clinic under a doctor’s care, to being available by mail after a virtual doctor visit or filling out a form.
Despite its growing use, the abortion pill’s safety has been repeatedly called into question by pro-life doctors and advocates since the FDA’s approval in 2000 of mifepristone.
While abortion advocates have praised the lowering of restrictions around the drug in the name of access, pro-life advocates say that has come at the expense of women taking the drug. “The health and safety of women has just been thrown out the door to allow for online, no test distribution,” said Kristi Hamrick, now vice president of media and policy for Students for Life of America, which runs the website thisischemicalabortion.com and has fought against expanding the abortion pill’s distribution on college campuses.
Abortion activists view telehealth as a means to get the abortion pill to women in states where abortion is restricted or outlawed, or where contested laws made its future legality uncertain.
In her role as Project Rachel coordinator in the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, Kerstin Pakka regularly speaks with women seeking healing from abortion. She said she has been contacted by an increasing number of women who have had chemical abortions, and they often are looking for help weeks after the abortion, much sooner than the years that pass for many women who have had surgical abortions before they seek out Project Rachel.
Chemical abortion is a “completely different trauma, it’s a completely different experience” from surgical abortion, Pakka said.
“With a chemical abortion at home, you are there usually by yourself and you’re experiencing everything. You’re the one taking the pills, you are the one experiencing the symptoms, and you’re the one who was seeing what happened,” she said. “It’s a very immediate sense of ‘this isn’t just a clump of cells. This isn’t just tissue. This is my child.'”
The abortion pill is prescribed for as late as 12 weeks gestation. By nine weeks, the embryo has visible characteristics — limbs, hands, a face with discernible eyes, nose, and ears. Most women who have chemical abortions presumably flush their baby’s body down the toilet, which has been the case for the women Pakka has counseled.
“It definitely adds to the trauma then, that that’s the way they have to dispose of their baby,” she said. For some women she knows, being at home, or in the bathroom or shower, triggers post-abortion trauma.
As chemical abortion continues to climb as a proportion of overall U.S. abortions, the differences between the experience of chemical and surgical abortion impact how post-abortive healing ministries such as Project Rachel minister to them, said Pakka.
Women who have taken the abortion pill “feel that they are solely responsible for what happened,” she said. “My job is to show them that they are loveable, that they are loved, that they are worthy of forgiveness of mercy, and that they’re not alone.”
Affected by abortion? “Project Rachel” is a confidential, non-judgmental program offering emotional and spiritual healing to anyone who has been affected by abortion. If you or anyone you know is seeking healing from abortion — no matter when it occurred— help is available. Learn more about Project Rachel in the Diocese of Allentown on the Catholic Charities website.
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