Abortion is not health care and never will be

OPINION:

California has made it lawful for doctors to prescribe abortion drugs anonymously — drugs that have left countless women and children suffering from their devastating consequences.

When abortion pills are distributed under a veil of secrecy, we must pause and ask: Why would anyone take such action in the name of health care?

The answer is abundantly clear and heartbreaking. No one truly believes that abortion is health care. Claiming so is misleading and is deadly to women and their babies.

As the leader of a national adoption ministry, deeply committed to the sanctity of human life, I see clearly that the pro-abortion movement is taking its false claim to a whole new level.

This law strips away medical and moral responsibility from doctors and other prescribing practitioners in favor of opening the door to abuse, coercion, harm and ultimately death.

No legitimate branch of medicine tolerates such dangerous exceptions. Abortion pills are in a category of their own, shielded from the standards that protect patients universally. Americans should be alarmed that any prescription drug, let alone one that can be unsafe and life-threatening, can be prescribed without accountability.

Make no mistake: This is not “protection for women.” This new law is further proof that the abortion industry is concerned only about pushing an ideology while protecting itself from responsibility, all at the expense of women and children.

The widespread availability of abortion pills, prescribed with alarming leniency, kicks the door wide open to coercion, leaving countless women carrying the weight of lifelong mental and physical trauma. Despite recent state abortion bans, the number of abortions in America actually increased last year, directly as a result of telehealth prescriptions of abortion pills. Failing to protect women from these dangerous drugs is not neutral; it is complicit in the harm and death they cause.

Despite Louisiana’s abortion ban, a woman from Louisiana was coerced into taking abortion pills prescribed via telehealth and mailed from a doctor in California. She voiced her desire against taking the pills, yet relational pressure left her feeling she had no choice. Today, she lives with the trauma of chemical abortion’s grizzly results. Without telehealth prescriptions, she would have been spared that pain and the loss of her child.

The tragedy doesn’t end with emotional wounds. Research from the Ethics and Public Policy Center shows that 1 in 10 women suffer serious complications, such as sepsis, infection or hemorrhage, within 45 days of taking the abortion pill.

Pro-abortion advocates would rather maintain the illusion of “reproductive freedom” and “women’s rights,” even if it means leaving women vulnerable to unchecked harm under the guise of care.

Some argue that although abortion drugs carry risks, it is somehow more dangerous to restrict access to them, pointing to higher infant mortality rates in states with abortion bans. This reasoning distorts the complexity of infant mortality causes and ignores the reality that these drugs take countless innocent lives each year.

Many women who pursue abortion are doing so from a place of deep fear, loneliness and confusion. They are vulnerable, longing for help and hope. These drugs do not make them less vulnerable. On the contrary, they magnify their pain, leaving scars that linger for a lifetime. True compassion meets women in their brokenness with love, guidance and real care that values their life and their child’s.

Abortion is not health care. It never has been, and it never will be. Beloved, now is the time to speak boldly, to enter into truth-filled dialogue that preserves life. Proverbs 24:11 commissions us: “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.”

By the Holy Spirit, we are not left powerless. We are called and equipped to stand firm against injustice, violence and death. With a growing revival of Christian values and more souls coming to Christ each day, the call has never been clearer: We must boldly speak life, uphold truth and defend the most vulnerable among us.

• Herbie Newell is president and executive director of Lifeline Children’s Services and author of “Image Bearers: Shifting from Pro-Birth to Pro-Life.”