Americans once believed that smoking was harmless thanks to media and even doctors’ endorsements—that is, until 1964, when Surgeon General Luther Terry released a report revealing that smoking causes lung and heart cancer. More than 50 years later, no one questions the dangerous side effects of smoking. But today, America faces another dire public health hazard that the Surgeon General hasn’t yet addressed: Chemical Abortion Pills.   

READ: 10 Reasons to Add Chemical Abortion Pills to Your HATE List 

Shockingly, in the United States, we can’t say for certain how many women have been exposed to the deadly pills, as we have no National Abortion Reporting Law. That in itself is a public health hazard, as Chemical Abortion Pills are sold so casually.  

READ: Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins’ op-ed in the Washington Times — “What we don’t know about abortion can hurt us” 

The abortion industry self-reports that these deadly pills make up more than  63% of all abortions nationwide, killing preborn babies and harming women. In light of reported use, the public desperately needs a Surgeon General Warning and a Public Service Announcement on their severe side effects, especially in light of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) breakthrough study titled “The Abortion Pill Harms Women.” The study found that, out of 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions from 2017 to 2023, “10.93 percent of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious or life-threatening adverse event within 45 days following a mifepristone abortion, far greater than the summary figure of ‘less than 0.5 percent’ in clinical trials reported on the drug label.” 

READ: TWO NEW TRUTHS & AN OLD LIE: Chemical Abortion Pills Safety Data Worse than the FDA Admits 

A nearly 11% chance of severe and life-threatening side effects should ring the Surgeon General’s alarm bells. In years past, surgeon generals have put warnings on, or called for warnings on, all types of things, like alcohol, obesity, youth’s social media use, HIV/AIDS, and opioid use & addiction. With each of these examples, there’s good reason for a warning. Alcohol takes the lives of 178,307 Americans per year, on average. A host of life-threatening health issues stem from obesity, like Type 2 Diabetes, risk of heart disease and stroke, and cancers, including breast, colon, and endometrial. Americans launch nationwide campaigns raising awareness of mental health risks.  

And yet, numerous studies over the years outlining the mental health risks, physical risks, and increased Emergency Room (ER) visits after Chemical Abortion Pill consumption have failed to get the same attention. A number of studies have found that exposure to abortion and pregnancy loss increase the risk of mental health disorders, at least for some women. Women deserve to be warned about these potential risks. 

Unfortunately, most women haven’t been warned. One woman recounted her shattering experience taking a Chemical Abortion Pill, writing, “It came out in a sack, with all the limbs and eyes… heart still beating. If I knew that would be the outcome, I would’ve never done it.” 

Students for Life of America (SFLA) Northeast Field Operations Coordinator Savannah Craven talked to a woman who scooped her baby out of the toilet after taking Chemical Abortion Pills.  

“I scooped the baby out of the toilet and kept it in a box for years,” she recalled. “It was only 10 or 11 weeks old, but it was a whole baby: It was fully formed. They lied to me. And when I went to the clinic to get an implant in my arm so I couldn’t get pregnant for like five years, I told them about it (the baby), and they said they could take it, but I said no.”    

Women taking Chemical Abortion Pills are subject to physical complications, including profuse bleeding, blot clots, body shakes, nausea, diarrhea, uncontrollable sweating, fever, and chills.   

The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) has done several studies aimed at Chemical Abortion Pills. Its most famous study came out in 2024, indicating that Chemical Abortion Pills lead to a rise in ER and hospital visits. James Studnicki, CLI vice president and director of data analytics and head author of “A Longitudinal Cohort Study of Emergency Room Utilization Following Mifepristone Chemical and Surgical Abortions, 1999-2015” defended the study in a YouTube statement:  

“They were making the case that abortion is safe. . .Our work on emergency room visits represents a, if you will, different point of view than the narrative that they thought was secure. We asked a simple question: when women have an induced abortion, what is their likelihood to visit an emergency room within the next 30 days? . . .And what we found is that for any kind of an abortion, there is an increasing likelihood that they’re going to end up in the emergency room within 30 days, and that chemical abortions are significantly more likely than surgical abortions to result in a visit to the ER.”     

Yet, the same media covering the Surgeon General’s warning on social media usage among youth, alcohol usage, and obesity won’t make a peep over women vulnerable to the dangers of Chemical Abortion Pills.   

It’s time to put the agendas aside, consider the data, and act appropriately. When health warnings were printed on cigarette packages in 1966, it contributed to a drastic change in how people viewed smoking. In 1965, 42% of American adults smoked. In 2020, that number dropped down to 12.5%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While we can’t fully isolate the warning label’s direct impact, it’s clear it played an essential role in shifting public perception of smoking. The same could be true for Chemical Abortion Pills, making women think twice and choose life for their preborn babies.   

It’s about time Surgeon General Denise Hinton addressed the copious amounts of data linking Chemical Abortion Pills to life-threatening complications. 

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