The recent arrest of three individuals in Bellingham, Washington, for a plot to force-feed chemical abortion pills to a sleeping pregnant woman is a chilling reminder of the dangers posed by the widespread availability of these deadly pills.  

According to the report, a 32-year-old suspect attempted to administer a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol to the victim four times, at one point using oxycodone to ensure she remained unconscious during the assault.  

Although the woman and her preborn baby reportedly survived, the alleged attempts were far from harmless. According to court records, she suffered prolonged bleeding, a hemorrhage, and dangerously low blood pressure requiring emergency medical treatment. The alleged plot only came to light after the suspect’s own brother contacted her through Facebook Messenger, revealing that chemical abortion pills had reportedly been concealed in her prenatal supplements. She brought the allegations and supporting records to police on October 20, triggering an investigation that resulted in three arrests. Her identity remains undisclosed publicly, but her experience raises urgent questions about the safeguards governing access to chemical abortion pills.  

The same questions persist: How many more examples of chemical abortion pills being used as weapons will it take before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acts? How many more preborn babies must die? How many more women must be poisoned? 

This is not an isolated horror story. In 2024, a Texas man named Mason Herring was sentenced to prison for spiking his wife’s water with misoprostol to induce an abortion without her consent. In November 2025, Students for Life of America (SFLA) reported on Ohio surgical resident Hassan-James Abbas, who obtained abortion pills using his estranged wife’s information and forced crushed pills into his pregnant girlfriend’s mouth. In June 2026, former West Point cadet Caleb Suh plead guilty to assault after secretly administering abortion pills to his girlfriend, causing the death of her preborn baby.  

Recently, the horrifying discovery of an 11-month-old baby buried alive in a dog crate in South Carolina is yet another heartbreaking reminder of how little regard some people have for innocent human life. When even the most vulnerable among us can be subjected to such unimaginable cruelty, it raises serious questions about the value our society places on human life and our responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves. 

SFLA has been exposing the dangers of easy access to chemical abortion pills firsthand. In March 2026, SFLA President Kristan Hawkins and spokesperson Lydia Taylor Davis conducted an undercover investigation in Houston, Texas, posing as individuals seeking chemical abortion pills online, including a potential male abuser and an underage girl. The investigation highlighted the urgent need to scrutinize online distribution and determine whether existing safeguards can prevent abuse.  

Our broader undercover investigations in Oklahoma, West Virginia, and South Carolina have also documented how readily chemical abortion pills can be requested online, even in states with pro-life protections. If our team can find these distribution channels, what prevents an abusive partner from attempting the same thing? The FDA must act before another preborn baby and woman joins the long list of death-by-mail victims. 

For years, the FDA has systematically stripped away the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) protections that once required these pills to be dispensed in person by a certified physician. By allowing mail-order distribution and retail pharmacy sales, the FDA has created a “no-questions-asked” environment that facilitates criminal activity.  

We can debate the appropriate criminal sentences for those who administer these drugs without consent, but prosecution is a reactive measure that does nothing to prevent the initial trauma. The only proactive solution is a total ban.  

The FDA has already demonstrated its willingness to strengthen safety warnings for COVID-19 vaccines, including updated warnings in 2025 concerning myocarditis and pericarditis. Yet documented cases of men using chemical abortion pills to coerce or secretly attempt abortions against pregnant women raise serious questions about whether the FDA’s existing safeguards adequately protect women and their preborn babies. Why isn’t the agency treating these cases with the same urgency? This double standard is a betrayal of the agency’s founding mandate to ensure the safety of all Americans. 

Consider how tightly controlled pharmaceutical-grade narcotics, including injectable opioids, are in the United States. Their manufacture, distribution, and dispensing are subject to strict federal regulations, recordkeeping, and oversight by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), while the FDA oversees their safety, approval, and manufacturing standards. Why shouldn’t chemical abortion pills, which have been weaponized against pregnant women and their preborn babies, face similarly stringent restrictions?  

If the federal government recognizes the dangers of allowing powerful substances to fall into the wrong hands, why does the FDA continue to permit chemical abortion pills to be distributed through the mail? The FDA must end their approval for abortion rather than wait for another tragedy. If the FDA does not act now to ban these chemicals, we are effectively subsidizing a toolkit for domestic terrorists and abusers. 

Students for Life has not waited quietly. Our efforts include FDA citizen petitions, legislative advocacy, and model legislation addressing chemical abortion pill trafficking and remote distribution. Through our This Is Chemical Abortion campaign, we have also worked to expose the consequences for women and preborn babies. Our mission is not merely to make these pills harder to misuse; It is to end abortion in our lifetime. 

The FDA’s failure to adequately address chemical abortion pills extends beyond women’s safety. Students for Life of America’s environmental investigations have raised concerns about chemical abortion pill residue entering America’s waterways, potentially threatening aquatic ecosystems and endangered species. Our calls for comprehensive environmental testing and FDA accountability have gone unanswered, leaving critical questions about the environmental impact of these pills unresolved. 

The time for incremental regulation has passed. The evidence of easy access leading to violent, non-consensual use is overwhelming. The FDA must recognize that chemical abortion pills are a public health liability that enables physical assault and the surreptitious termination of life. To prevent the next Bellingham or the next Herring case, the FDA must exercise its authority to ban these substances immediately. Anything less is an admission that the agency values political expediency over the lives and safety of women and their preborn children. 

No regulation can guarantee that a criminal will never obtain a pill. That is not an argument for regulatory paralysis. Women should not have to wonder whether their drinks, food, or prenatal vitamins have been tampered with. 

The FDA must strengthen oversight of the distribution of these substances; the responsibility remains with the agency for allowing chemical abortion pills to remain readily accessible in the first place. It must be held accountable for the safeguards it allows, and it is time to end the federal approval of chemical abortion pills rather than wait for another woman and her preborn baby to become victims. 

How much more evidence, and how many more victims, will the FDA require before it acts…NOW? 

READ MORE ABOUT CASES OF SEXUAL ABUSERS USING ABORTION PILLS AGAINST VICTIMS HERE: Abusers Love Abortion: Ohio Doctor Accused of FORCING Chemical Abortion into Girlfriend’s Mouth 

AND HERE: Sexual Abusers Use Abortion Drugs on Victims; These Are Their Stories 

READ MORE ABOUT SFLA’S FIGHT HERE: WHY WE FIGHT FOR LIFE: Ex-West Point Cadet Pleaded GUILTY for DRUGGING Former Girlfriend with Chemical Abortion Pills 

READ MORE: Peer Reviewed Study Out: Testing Shows Abortion Drug Mifepristone In Drinking Water