CV NEWS FEED // An Iowa House committee Feb. 26 advanced a bill requiring that pregnant women who seek chemical abortions understand the risks and are aware of the option of abortion pill reversal.
The Health and Human Services Committee voted 13-6, with two excused, in favor of recommending the passage of House Study Bill 186, which prohibits physicians from performing a chemical abortion until after he or she has a written statement from the pregnant woman that she is aware of the risks posed by chemical abortions.
The statement must also confirm that she is aware that it is possible, if she changes her mind after beginning the chemical abortion, to reverse the chemical abortion and save her unborn child. Finally, the statement must confirm that she knows the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, as the bill will require, has information and guidance on how to reverse a chemical abortion.
The bill also requires hospitals and other places that commit medication abortions “to conspicuously post a sign in a location as described in the bill relating to the effectiveness and possibility of avoiding, ceasing, or even reversing the effects of a medication abortion.”
>> Analysis: CDC admits that abortion pill reversal is backed by science <<
According to Iowa Public Radio (IPR), Planned Parenthood lobbyist Mazie Stilwell opposed the bill’s requirements, saying they “are medically unnecessary.”
“They provide no benefit to patients and are politically motivated to restrict access to abortion,” she claimed.
Several pro-life advocates this week explained their support of the bill.
“If this bill becomes law, here’s the bottom line: some real life future person with real life flesh and real life blood will some day look back to this bill as the reason they survived pregnancy,” said Jeff Pitts, who lobbies for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, according to Radio Iowa.
>> Report reveals 6,000 babies saved through abortion pill reversal <<
Iowa Right to Life Executive Director Kristi Judkins emphasized the importance of awareness of risks posed by chemical abortions.
“Women deserve to know the complications, risks and threats of chemical abortion,” she said, according to IPR. “Women need to be told that they may not get rid of the baby [if they take the abortion pills].”
The typical two-pill chemical abortion regimen starts with mifepristone, which blocks progesterone. Progesterone is essential for the unborn child to receive oxygen and nutrients. When it is blocked, the child is starved or suffocates to death. The second pill in the regimen is misoprostol, which causes contractions, so as to expel the dead unborn child. However, there is risk that misoprostol will not expel all of the child’s remains, leading to risks of infection, sepsis, and even the mother’s death, according to a chemical abortion explainer from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that cites the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and other organizations.
Abortion pill reversal involves administering progesterone so as to counteract mifepristone’s effects. Abortion pill reversal, which has a 62% success rate, is only possible within 24 hours of taking mifepristone, according to the American Pregnancy Association.
>> Women who use chemical abortion pills significantly more likely to end up in emergency room <<
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