I nearly died after taking abortion drugs — they don't belong in the mail |
I nearly died after taking abortion drugs — they don’t belong in the mail
As soon as I read the breaking news, memories flooded back to me of the hospital room where I nearly died at age 19.
No number of slogans or activists could help me in that moment. What I remember is the blood, the pain and the terrifying realization that when everything went wrong, I was completely on my own.
That is why the ruling from the federal court to pause mail-order abortion drugs nationwide is nothing short of monumental. For the first time, a court has forced the FDA to answer for a reckless COVID-era policy that put women and their children directly in harm’s way. Mailing dangerous abortion drugs with no in-person examination, no meaningful safeguards and no regard for state law was never about women’s health. It was about politics.
I am now 25 years old, working as a sterile processing surgical technician while pursuing my nursing degree. But during my freshman year of college, I became pregnant and decided to take abortion drugs.
I believed what I had been told — that the process was simple and safe, like having a heavy period. What happened instead nearly cost me my life.
When I learned I was pregnant, I was living on campus and trying to keep up with school. I took four pregnancy tests. I didn’t tell many people, because I was scared and embarrassed. I had convinced myself the fastest way to move forward was to end the pregnancy quietly and get back to my life.
I scheduled an appointment at an abortion center. There, they performed an ultrasound and told me I was about nine weeks pregnant. I remember seeing the image clearly — a small body with arms and legs already forming.
The staff explained that the pills would cause cramping and bleeding — telling me it was like a heavy period. I took the first set of drugs there and then was sent home with a........