OPINION:
There is a lurking danger of which all Virginia parents need to be made aware, if they’re not already: the “Fundamental Right to Reproductive Freedom,” a proposed change to the Virginia Constitution that would make abortion at any age or gestational stage a “fundamental right” in the commonwealth.
This intentionally vague attempt to sanitize abortion as a “right” gives few distinctions and no caveats.
More than 60% of abortions in Virginia are medical abortions. The primary drug, mifepristone, was fast-tracked for approval by the Food and Drug Administration during the Clinton administration. Subsequent safety data, however, is virtually nonexistent, as adverse event reporting is voluntary and not required. When the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently called mifepristone “extremely safe,” it had no valid studies on which to base that claim. When Canada did not approve mifepristone in 2000, it was because of a death during clinical trials from Clostridium sordellii-induced toxic shock syndrome.
The Virginia amendment does give homage to “accepted clinical standards of practice and evidence-based medicine” to “ensure the protection of the health of the individual” seeking abortion. Given the lack of safety evidence, however, the section is laughable. These pills are available online, with or without a prescription or a doctor’s visit, and sent to whoever wants them.
New research illustrates the dangers of medical abortion: “The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event.” Deaths, however, were not calculated because there was no insurance charge for them. Stay tuned.
Surgical abortion is no better. The first inspection of abortion clinics was published in 2015. At that time, 400 violations of “evidence-based medicine” were identified. How are they operating today? Nobody, certainly not the Virginia Department of Health, really knows. The department lost regulatory authority over first trimester abortion facilities in 2019, thanks to General Assembly legislation.
Parents of underage children are not consulted, informed or even mentioned in the amendment. They are treated as nonentities.
The only way to avoid the total annihilation of parents’ rights and enact commonsense restriction of abortion is to oppose the “Fundamental Right to Reproductive Freedom.”
ROSEMARY ANTUNES
Front Royal, Virginia
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