As of early January 2023, Danco Laboratories, the U.S. manufacturer of the abortion pill, announced that the FDA has made changes to its guidelines surrounding the abortion pill. These changes allow pharmacies, from large chains like CVS or Walgreens to small, locally owned businesses, to dispense the pill to anyone with a prescription.

Many women choose the abortion pill (also known as a chemical abortion) because they assume it’s safer and more natural. However, complications occur during chemical abortion four times more frequently than during surgical abortion. According to Dr. Christina Francis, “approximately one in five women will experience a significant complication,” which often must be treated by emergency surgery.

The abortion pill is actually a two-pill regimen made up of different drugs:  Mifepristone, also known as Mifeprex or RU-486, and Misoprostol. When a woman chooses to abort her pre-born baby through a chemical abortion, she first takes Mifeprex. This blocks progesterone, starving the pre-born baby of the nutrients needed to continue developing. One to two days later, she takes Misoprostol, which causes her to deliver her now-dead baby. This part frequently happens in the woman’s own home, so she is responsible for disposing of her pre-born baby’s body, often by flushing it down a toilet.

Unsurprisingly, this causes significant trauma for the woman involved in an abortion. Aside from the moral harm it does to her conscience, seeing her dead child covered in blood and floating in the toilet, often awakens her to the reality of what just happened, causing insurmountable emotional problems she will struggle with for years.

But the emotional trauma resulting from the use of the abortion pill isn’t why it was under guidelines that prevented it from being sold in retail pharmacies. Mifeprex, the first drug in the regimen, is dangerous enough that the FDA gave it REMS status. REMS stands for Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, which is described by the FDA as, “a drug safety program that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can require for certain medications with serious safety concerns to help ensure the benefits of the medication outweigh its risks. REMS are designed to reinforce medication use behaviors and actions that support the safe use of that medication… REMS focus on preventing, monitoring and/or managing a specific serious risk by informing, educating and/or reinforcing actions to reduce the frequency and/or severity of the event.”

Mifeprex is often dangerous. A few of the possible side effects include:

• Death (a tragic example is this 19-year-old who died after taking the abortion pill)
• Flu or fever-like symptoms
• Hemorrhage
• The need for surgical completion afterwards (the baby didn’t die, or the remains and/or placenta are retained, resulting in a need for surgery)
• Pain in the chest, lower back, side, arms, jaw, or neck
• Infection and possible sepsis
• Prolonged bleeding, from several hours to as long as 30 days

Under the previous REMS guidelines for Mifeprex, women could only receive the pill in person at approved clinics or hospitals that could provide certain medical and safety procedures. But as of January 3rd, 2023, the guidelines have been amended by the FDA so that retail pharmacies who “become certified in the Mifepristone REMS Program” can dispense this highly dangerous pill to anyone with a prescription.

Women in hopeless situations, who believe the lie that the abortion pill is a safe and effective way to deal with a difficult circumstance, are unwittingly walking into a deadly situation. These women desperately need Jesus. This world desperately needs Jesus. The culture of death is so insatiable in its thirst for blood that it’s willing to bypass any concern for human life, and any idea of the sacredness of human life, solely to make death easier, more accessible, and more desirable.

Read more:

Four Doctors Groups Tell Federal Court to Pull Abortion Pill From Market, It’s Dangerous for Women (LifeNews.com)

College can be one of the most exciting times in a young person’s life. They are leaving home, often for the first time, and venturing off to learn who they might become as adults. It is also a frightening time for both the students and their parents as these young adults test their independence. It is not uncommon to hear about students from loving Christian homes that find themselves in a predicament because they were unprepared to deal with the peer pressures of alcohol, drugs, or sex on the college campus. Despite these students’ stress, the Illinois General Assembly would like to make matters worse by mandating that all public college campuses offer emergency contraception in vending machines.

Sponsored by State Representative Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora), HB 4247 requires all Illinois public colleges and universities to provide emergency contraceptives in an easily accessed vending machine. Each of the schools would have to provide at least one of the machines somewhere on their campus. Students would not be required to see a physician or obtain a prescription to use the vending machine drugs.

Emergency contraception, sometimes referred to as the morning-after pill, typically comes in two forms: Plan-B, also called Levonorgestrel, progesterone only pill, and EllaOne, which consists of Ulipristal Acetate. Both of these pills are supposed to inhibit ovulation preventing pregnancy. They work for up to 5 days following unprotected sex. However, conception may have already occurred because the medication is not taken until after sexual intercourse. In this case, these pills prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus, meaning the drugs become abortifacients.

The true nature of these pills often goes unadvertised. Many young women have no idea that the drugs may cause an early abortion. By having these pills in a vending machine, young women who might otherwise be pro-life could end up taking a medication that they might otherwise avoid. Not only that, but these vending machines would be readily available to anyone. There would be no need for an examination or a consultation with a physician. What would occur if a young woman had a condition that might be counter-indicated for her to take these pills? For example, there have been indications that Levonorgestrel can interact with some anticonvulsant medications given to people who experience seizures. A young woman on those anticonvulsants may have no idea that she could experience a drug interaction as a result of taking this vending machine pill.

Since a physician would not be involved in dispensing these powerful drugs, there would be no oversight and special instructions given to women as to what to expect. They might not know if they were experiencing an adverse reaction or what constitutes a medical emergency, which sometimes occurs with these medications. These young women might not have a physician they feel they can comfortably reach out to for help if they have questions. These vending machine pharmacies are removing healthcare from the hands of professionals and putting it into the hands of scared inexperienced young women.

The other problem with vending machines is that they can dispense to anyone and circumvents a physicians oversite. What about complications? Sexually transmitted disease? What about the emotional consequences of destroying your own child?

There are other concerns too: What about human traffickers that want to hide their crimes by eliminating pregnancies in their victims? Or what about the young boyfriend who decides to slip the drug to his girlfriend because he isn’t ready to be a father? What is preventing a high school student or even a middle school student from going to that campus to access the vending machine? There are too many possibilities of abuse with vending machine dispensaries, not to mention the atrocities of abortion that occur as a result, to allow such a horrific bill to be passed.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to contact your local state representative to let him/her know that you do not want your tax dollars used to subsidize emergency contraceptives on college campuses. Moreover, it is absolutely foolish to encourage risky sexual behavior in young people.

This bill passed out of the House Higher Education Committee. on February 9, 2022 by a vote of 6 to 4 and is on second reading. If you agree with us that that HB 4247 is dangerous and threatens the well-being of our young people, please contact your state representative.

Written by Michael Foust

The Obama administration proposed a rule change Friday it says will appease the concerns religious organizations have about the abortion/contraceptive mandate, but legal groups who defend religious liberty called the proposal inadequate and said it fell far short of what is needed.

Religious groups had hoped the Department of Health and Human Services would announce that all religious organizations — universities, hospitals and charities — are exempt from the mandate, which requires employers to carry health insurance plans covering contraceptives and drugs that can cause chemical abortions. Churches, for example, are exempt from the mandate. Instead, HHS issued a rule it says allows for employees to obtain contraceptives and abortion-causing drugs without the religious employer taking part in the process. Religious liberty groups say employers still will be involved. 

The proposal also does nothing to help businesses such as Bible publisher Tyndale House or Christian-owned Hobby Lobby or any other for-profit whose owners have religious objections to contraceptives and/or abortion-causing drugs. 

“Having reviewed this proposed rule, we … have to say we’re extremely disappointed,” Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said in a conference call with reporters. Becket Fund has helped lead the legal charge against the mandate. More than 40 lawsuits have been filed against the mandate. Duncan called the proposal “radically inadequate.”

According to an HHS website, under the proposal, the religious employer “would not have to contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds.” Employees “would receive contraceptive coverage through separate individual health insurance policies, without cost sharing or additional premiums.” The insurance company would be required to offer the drugs for free, HHS said. 

Religious organizations that are self-insured would have to contact a third party administrator, which would “work with a health insurance issuer to provide separate, individual health insurance policies at no cost for participants.” 

Religious liberty groups had multiple objections to the proposal. First, the groups said, religious organizations still will be required to carry an insurance plan that is tied to coverage of contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs. Second, religious employers — particularly those who are self-insured — will be acting as “conduits” with health providers to ensure their employees can obtain the drugs. Third, it’s unclear who is paying for the “free drugs.” As some religious commentators were suggesting: Will insurance companies simply raise rates — and thereby pass the cost for the abortion-causing drugs on to the religious organization? 

Duncan said religious organizations are “going to have to carefully consider whether this accommodation really doesn’t change the moral landscape at all. It’s going to be up to them to make that determination. We believe they’re going to have some serious concerns about remaining unacceptably involved in the provision of these drugs and devices.”

Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel Matt Bowman said the proposal still infringes on religious liberty.

“Religious non-profits will, in fact, be forced to provide an insurance plan with a provider that gives the religious group’s employees abortion-pill coverage in direct connection with that plan, the coverage is definitely not free, and the coverage is imposed ‘automatically’ even against the objection of many employees who don’t want free abortion-pill coverage for themselves or their daughters,” Bowman said.

To qualify for the proposal, an organization must self-certify that it “holds itself out as a religious organization,” according to HHS. Ironically that could mean that many of the nation’s leading pro-life organizations — despite being non-profits — won’t qualify for the accommodation because they’re technically not religious organizations.

The HHS announcement did nothing to change the coverage by for-profits. Hobby Lobby, the arts and crafts store whose Christian owners say they will not follow the mandate, apparently will face fines of more than $1 million each day if a federal court does not step in. Its owners always have made their faith a central part of their business. Their stores play Christian instrumental music and are closed on Sundays. Hobby Lobby contributes to Christian organizations and runs full-page ads in newspapers during the Easter and Christmas seasons with Gospel-centered messages.

The good news for Christian for-profits is they are winning in court, having seen 10 wins and only four losses. Hobby Lobby, though, is one of those losses. The issue likely is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The administration fails to understand,” said Gene Rudd of the Christian Medical Association, “that many employers and individual Americans, regardless of a religious label or not, maintain strong conscience objections to participating in any way, shape or form in a plan that promotes pills that the FDA says can cause the demise of a living human embryo — a developing baby in her earliest stage.”

Covered under the mandate are emergency contraceptives such as Plan B and ella that can kill an embryo after fertilization and even after implantation. Pro-lifers consider that action a chemical abortion.

The mandate was announced by HHS in August 2011 as part of the health care law championed by President Obama. Although the Supreme Court upheld the health care law last June, the justices’ ruling did not deal with the religious liberty issues surrounding the abortion/contraceptive mandate. That means the nation’s highest court could yet strike down what has been for religious groups and some business owners the most controversial part of the law.

Michael Foust is associate editor of Baptist Press. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress ) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).

The retail craft store chain Hobby Lobby has become the latest major employer to file suit over the Obama Administration’s Health and Human Services (HHS) contraceptive and abortion drug mandate — also known as the HHS Mandate. Hobby Lobby has gone into federal court to oppose the forced inclusion of abortifacient drugs in their corporate health insurance plans.

Under the mandate issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, virtually all health insurance policies issued in the United States must include coverage of any and all “contraceptives” approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This mandate requires coverage of drugs and devices that can destroy developing human embryos, including the abortifacient drugs Ella and Plan B, often marketed as so-called “emergency contraceptives.”

“The new government mandate requires that our family business provide what we believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance,” says David Green, the chief executive officer of Hobby Lobby, Inc. “We choose not to cover drugs that might cause abortion, such as the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs.”

“It is by God’s grace and provision that Hobby Lobby has endured,” Green adds. “We seek to honor God by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles. We are being forced to choose between following the laws of the country that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported thousands of our employees and their families.”

Hobby Lobby is the first major business owned by evangelical Christians to initiate litigation to block the contraceptive mandate. The company, which had its start in an Oklahoma City garage, now operates 500 stores in 41 states, employing 22,500 people. Hobby Lobby is one of the few retail chains which closes its stores on Sundays, to allow employees to enjoy a day of rest with their families.

Under the terms of the Obama Administration’s contraceptive mandate, Hobby Lobby faces fines of $1.3 million per day for refusing to comply with the contraceptive mandate. “We are required to make a choice between sacrificing our faith or paying millions of dollars in fines,” Green says. “The government is telling us we must choose which poison pill to swallow. We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”

Nearly 30 lawsuits have been filed against the contraceptive and abortion drug mandate, which took effect on August 1st for all non-religious employers. Religious institutions other than churches, such as hospitals, colleges, and parachurch ministries, have until August 1st of 2013 to comply. Most of the lawsuits to date have been filed by Catholic dioceses and by Catholic and evangelical universities.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has served as legal counsel for many of the above-named plaintiffs, and they are representing Hobby Lobby as well. “Washington politicians cannot force families to abandon their faith just to earn a living,” says Lori Windham, Becket Fund senior counsel. “Every American, including family business owners like the Greens, should be free to live and do business according to their religious beliefs.”

Liberal activists have announced a boycott of Hobby Lobby, launching a Facebook page to generate support. David Green is a poor choice for such a boycott. Green and his wife Barbara are major Christian philanthropists, and donate the majority of their wealth to charity. The company pays salaries to its starting full-time employees which are 80 percent above the minimum wage.

“Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy,” Green observes. “Our government threatens to fine a company like ours that has raised wages four years running during this national recession. It’s just not right.”

Please pray for and support Hobby Lobby and business owners like the Greens, who have the courage to put their faith into practice in the marketplace. Thank God for their willingness to take a stand on behalf of human life despite the financial consequences to them and their families.