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Bill seeks ban on certain drug-induced abortions

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News

Published: September 4, 2015

Among the proposals introduced this legislative session that concern abortion, House Bill 255 would expand the regulation of inducing an abortion with certain drugs.

The bill, known as the Abortion-Inducing Drug Safety Act, is jointly sponsored by Reps. Tom Brinkman, R-Cincinnati, and Christina Hagan, R-Alliance.

“This legislation is intended to ensure women’s health care be exactly that, care to the highest degree with no misuse of drugs beyond the context of their intent by the FDA,” Hagan said.

In 2012, Ohio’s law requiring that the drug mifepristone be furnished in accordance with FDA protocol became an enforceable measure.

“Around the same time, non-surgical abortions dropped dramatically by 79 percent in Ohio. Although I am certain this can be attributed to a few variables, there is no doubt that abortionists having to act within (the) confines of safe practices approved by the FDA reduced the broad and questionable practice of using this drug to terminate a pregnancy with no boundaries, both for the woman and child,” Hagan said.

Since this change in law has been upheld and enacted, Hagan said the Ohio Department of Health began collecting data on the type of medication used for nonsurgical abortions.

In 2013 there were more than total of 1,100 chemical abortions. The great majority of those abortions, 855, were performed using mifepristone.

More than 580 of the abortions were done with misoprostol, mostly used in combination with mifepristone, 163 procedures were done with methotrexate and six of the abortions were performed with “other” drugs, such as potassium chloride.

Hagan said mifeprex combined with misoprostol, is currently the only drug regimen labeled for the purpose of inducing an abortion by the FDA.

“Abortions using methotrexate, a chemotherapy agent that is contra-indicated for use during pregnancy, rose dramatically from the previous year,” she said.

“As with cancer, methotrexate attacks the fast-growing cells of the tissue surrounding the embryo that eventually give rise to the placenta. The baby dies as she is deprived of needed food, oxygen and fluids.”

Methotrexate can cause abnormal liver function and liver damage as well as other side effects.

“The fact that abortionists are using a cancer drug to ‘treat’ pregnancy reveals two things about the abortion industry itself: It shows how they understand pregnancy and a pre-born baby — as a cancer to be stomped out — and it shows an astonishing contradiction between the abortion industry and the traditional medical community,” Hagan said. “Contrary to what the abortion industry’s practice implies, pregnancy is not a disease and an unborn baby is not a cancer to be cured.”

It is advised that methotrexate should not be taken by women who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

“It is advised that contraception be used during the use of methotrexate and for three months after methotrexate has been used. Unsafe drug interactions can occur if a woman is not informed of such potential complications because some medications and natural remedies may increase methotrexate toxicity, which is not just limited to the child being aborted but also to the woman ingesting methotrexate,” Hagan said.

“As a result of the misuse of these drugs, methotrexate used out of it’s originally intended purposes to help save a life is now being misadministered to terminate another.”

HB 255 would apply existing requirements, prohibitions, penalties and other regulations for inducing an abortion with mifepristone, to inducing an abortion with any abortion-inducing drug.

The bill would require a physician to abide by protocols authorized by the FDA when providing such drugs to a pregnant woman.

North Dakota, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas have enacted measures similar to HB 255.

“Abortion is never safe when an industry is willing to use methods that are unproven and untested with unknown ramifications to a woman’s health,” Hagan said.

“To execute such actions knowing full well the intent of a drug is being abused can very well result in complications of what was presented to a woman as a simple procedure. When the goal is the death of a human being, whether through poisoning or dismemberment, abortion can never be completely safe.”

With regard to admitting privileges at a qualified hospital, HB 255 would prohibit a physician who provides abortion-inducing drugs from knowingly failing to maintain admitting privileges and gynecological and surgical privileges at a local hospital equipped to care for emergency complications associated with abortion-inducing drugs and from having a signed contract with a physician who has such admitting privileges, who agrees to provide care during emergency complications.

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