Chemical abortion now accounts for 54% of abortions nationwide, according to Mary Carmen Zakrajsek, the Great Lakes regional coordinator of Students for Life of America.
Zakrajsek presented this statistic in a Feb. 16 lecture on the dangers of the increasingly popular form of abortion, hosted by Hillsdale College for Life.
“These are extremely dangerous, and the way in which it’s been presented is that abortion pills are safer than Tylenol,” Zakrajsek said.
A chemical abortion is performed by taking two pills one to two days apart.
“The first pill will deplete her preborn child of nutrients so that her baby starves to death,” Zakrajsek said. “The second pill she’s going to take will induce the extreme cramping and heavy bleeding to force the baby out of the woman’s uterus.”
Sophomore Rachel Schroder, the social media coordinator for HCFL, said this is the new frontier of the abortion industry. With the passing of Proposal 3 last November, which enshrined a right to abortion into the Michigan state Constitution, HCFL has been focusing heavily on this issue, according to Schroder.
“Especially with Proposal 3 having been passed last fall, it’s more important than ever that we are vigilant about the increased danger that we have of abortion in general and especially now chemical abortion in the state of Michigan,” Schroder said.
Zakrajsek used information from the Food and Drug Administration to show the potentially negative effects of chemical abortions.
“According to the FDA, 28 women have died that we know of from legal chemical abortion,” Zakrajsek said.
Zakrajsek also said there has been an increase in hospitalizations linked to this form of abortion, citing statistics from 2002-2015.
“The rate of abortion related emergency room visits following a chemical abortion increased over 500% in the span of 13 years,” Zakrajsek said.
Another problem with chemical abortion today is that it has been deregulated, she said.
“In December 2021, the FDA decreased common sense safety regulations, and now these drugs can be administered through the mail with no physician oversight,” Zakrajsek said.
After Zakrajsek’s speech, junior Kathryn Reid, the vice president of Hillsdale College for Life, spoke on what the student organization is doing to work against the recent increase in chemical abortions.
“This semester we are actually focusing on sidewalk counseling,” Reid said. “Because this is such an issue right now, we want to be outside of abortion clinics giving these women other resources.”
This Saturday, Feb. 25, Hillsdale College for Life will take a group of students to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for this purpose.
“We will be outside of an abortion clinic talking to women, talking to anyone who’s brought them, trying to warn them about the effects of this, offering them other resources, and offering help,” Reid said. “For those of you who aren’t as sure about your apologetics training yet, we’ll also be praying.”
Zakrajsek provided a website link for those who want more information on the stories of women who have gone through chemical abortions.
“We’ve compiled a PDF document 70 pages long with real stories of women who’ve undergone chemical abortion and regret it,” Zakrajsek said. “This can be downloaded at thisischemicalabortion.com and you can take this to your legislators. You can take this anywhere. It’s a packet you can print off to show the risks and the reality of chemical abortion.”
