For Immediate release:
September 22, 2021

Abortion Drugs in the Mailbox Means Women’s Lives at Risk

On October 1, abortionists in the Commonwealth of Virginia will begin distributing deadly chemical abortions to women via tele-med visits. Virginia will be one of only a handful of states with tele-med abortions due to a 2020 change in the law by pro-abortion radicals in the General Assembly.

“Pro-abortion advocates are celebrating women’s lives and health being placed at risk,” said Olivia Gans Turner, president of Virginia Society for Human Life. “The only people who stand to gain by the new rules will be Virginia’s abortion industry which can now sell more abortions to women in crisis. The result will be more abortions and more women harmed by the extremist agenda of Planned Parenthood and other abortion promoters.”

The new law also means that under guidelines from the Biden administration, there are no longer safety provisions in place to safeguard pregnant women who will receive these dangerous and deadly drugs in the mail. Chemical abortions kill the unborn child and often cause dangerous and sometimes life-threatening complications for the women who take them. Some of the complications include—but are not limited to—hemorrhaging, heart trouble, and incomplete abortions.

The new law also allows for a non-physician to meet with a woman via video once and prescribe the drug cocktail with no assurance that she will be able to receive follow-up care if needed.

Regulations from previous administrations required that a pregnant woman be seen by a licensed physician to determine that the pregnancy was less than 10 weeks and not ectopic (the drugs will not cause an abortion in an ectopic pregnancy) and that there were no other health factors that made the use of the chemicals dangerous.

Mifepristone was approved by the FDA in 2000 and, over the years, the FDA was explicit in warning that buyers should not purchase the drug over the internet “because they will bypass important safeguards designed to protect their health.”

“This is another example of the type of reckless overreach and radical agenda that the current pro-abortion majority in the Virginia House of Delegates has pushed since taking power in 2020. Their agenda is not in step with where most Virginians are on the abortion issue. Virginians respect reasonable, protective laws on abortion,” said Turner. “The fall elections are a chance to move Virginia away from their extremist goals.”

Virginia Society for Human Life is the oldest state-wide pro-life organization in the nation with chapters throughout the Commonwealth supporting life issues and the Virginia affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.

 6767 Forest Hill Ave., Suite 304 *  Richmond, VA 23225
Tel:  804.560.8745   **  www.vshl.org  **  info@vshl.org