When I was 24 years old, I unexpectedly found out I was pregnant. I was scared. I’m not married, and I’m not ready to be a mother.
I started looking for answers and looking for help. My boyfriend wants me to terminate my pregnancy. I didn’t like it. I don’t think it’s right. But he forced me to make an appointment at a local abortion facility.
When we got to the facility, we went back to the examination room and the doctor was really hesitant to show me my ultrasound. Without talking to me or sharing with me what the drugs could do, he gave me the first abortion drug mifepristone and left.
The staff gave me two pieces of paper to sign. No time to read the papers. No counseling. No private conversations. There was no guidance about any kind of side effects the drugs would have on my body.
They just gave me a bag with a second medicine to take at home. There was no talk of a follow-up doctor’s visit—not even a phone appointment. After I was given the medicine, and they got my money, my case was closed.
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No one told me the side effects of the medicine. No one told me there was a risk. “You feel good,” they said. “It will go behind you.”
The staff at the abortion facility told me I was going to have a rough time. They said I might experience some cramping, but nothing a heating pad and some Tylenol won’t take care of, and I’ll be back at work on Monday.
I have never experienced anything like that. During a period, you experience slight pain in your back. You feel like you need to use the bathroom and change your sanitary napkin. But it was the worst cramping I’ve ever experienced. I’ve had four children since then and what left me alone on my bathroom floor was labor pains. These drugs gave me labor—pain from my head to my feet.
And I was completely alone. I don’t have a nurse. I don’t have a doctor. I had to shut my boyfriend out of the bathroom because I didn’t want him to be scared because there was a lot of blood.
When my body was experiencing that much pain, I had no idea what was normal for this procedure.
I feel like I have a fever. I feel nauseous. I can not stand up. My body was shaking and sweating. It took a few hours. A heating pad, a heating blanket, Tylenol, Advil, nothing to stop the pain.
I was so scared—I thought I was going to die.
But that’s not the worst part. The worst part was that no one told me that I would actually pass the entire amniotic sac—that I would be holding my dead baby. That I can see its eyes and fingers. They told me I would only see clotted blood and heavy period blood. They lied to me.
I still see my dead son. You don’t see something like that. You can not.
I deserve a doctor to inform me of the risks. To check on me and provide ongoing care. I deserve an extra appointment. I deserve a phone call. I deserved the truth. But I was not given a chance. Those who claim to care about my health and well-being have shown so much disrespect for my life.
When I first heard that the FDA was removing safety standards around abortion drugs, I was shocked because without safeguards, women would face more harm, emotional pain, and life-threatening complications. of life. What scares me even more is that as traumatic and painful as my experience was with the lack of care I received, the FDA is letting women suffer even more now. And that is tragic.
Women who take these drugs without a personal doctor’s visit are at risk for so many devastating consequences.
Who will protect them from a ectopic pregnancy?
Who will protect them from bleeding and sepsis?
Who will protect them from abusive partners who want to take this drug away from them and terminate their pregnancy?
Who will counsel them about the reality of chemical abortion and the physical, emotional, and psychological dangers?
US Supreme Court required hold the FDA accountable. When the FDA removed its original safeguards, it betrayed not only me but every woman. The Supreme Court has to see that for that fact. It is time for the Court to say enough.
LifeNews Note: Elizabeth Gillette survived a chemical abortion when she was 24 years old. He currently resides in Salem, Oregon. It appeared on Alliance for Freedom and reposted with permission.
