4 women, 4 states: What mail-order abortion pills did to us

We traveled from Nevada, Nebraska, Oregon and Tennessee to Washington, D.C., recently, to speak with members of Congress, senators and national reporters about something deeply personal: what happened to us after taking abortion drugs.

We are four women from four different states. Our circumstances were different. Two of us obtained abortion drugs online via the web and chat. Two obtained them in person. But we share a conviction: women deserve to know the risks, and policymakers need to take a hard look at whether the current system protects them.

The FDA's own labeling should be part of this conversation.

Mifepristone carries a boxed warning about serious and sometimes fatal bleeding and infection. The FDA's own labeling reports that roughly 1 in 25 women who take these drugs will present to an emergency room ... and that’s from receiving them at an in-person abortion center after screenings. 

That is not a theoretical concern for us.

Haile McAnally obtained the drugs in person. After taking the second drug at home, she began bleeding heavily. She became weak and eventually lost consciousness in her bathtub. A friend found her and called 911. Haile was taken to a hospital and received a blood transfusion.

Elizabeth Gillette also obtained the drugs in person. She has publicly described experiencing severe bleeding, vomiting, shaking, and sweating. No one warned her that she would pass a human being after taking the drugs; she was told her baby was a “clump of cells.” She has suffered severe mental health challenges as a result. 

Then there are our experiences obtaining abortion drugs online.

Jessica Williams obtained abortion drugs through an online chat, with the drugs shipped across state lines to a hotel. After taking the first medication, Jessica immediately regretted her decision. She sought help from a pregnancy center and obtained abortion-pill reversal treatment. Her daughter, Kaylee, survived and is thriving. 

Jekyla Freeman was 19 and living in Memphis when she ordered abortion drugs through a website using a chat and text function. The drugs arrived from out of state in discreet packaging. Jekyla mourns her child. 

This is what concerns us. What legitimate kind of medication is ever allowed to be dispensed so carelessly?

We are talking about drugs that carry an FDA boxed warning being sent through the mail across state lines, sometimes after a woman has communicated through a chat function on a website, rather than sitting face-to-face with a medical professional.

And these are not ordinary drugs.

The FDA's own labeling warns about serious complications and instructs women to seek emergency medical attention for symptoms including prolonged heavy bleeding, severe abdominal pain and other concerning symptoms.

Yet the system increasingly allows these drugs to arrive at a woman's home or another location by mail. What was started by the Biden Administration as a temporary COVID-19 setup has now become permanent. And doing permanent damage to mother and child. 

We know what it feels like to be the woman on the receiving end of that package.

We also know what it means when something goes wrong.

We're not claiming that every woman who takes abortion drugs will experience a medical emergency. We are saying that the risks are real, the FDA acknowledges them, and women deserve safeguards that match those risks.

At a minimum, get abortion drugs out of the mail.

That is where we believe the conversation should begin. Americans will continue to disagree about abortion. But women who have experienced complications deserve to be heard regardless of where people stand on abortion itself.

We came to Washington because we don't want our experiences to remain at statistics or political talking points. We are women who lived through these experiences. We know what happened to us. We don’t want other women and children to suffer because of this dangerous push to self-manage abortion. 

Now we’re asking Congress, the Senate and federal policymakers to listen — and to put women's safety at the center of the conversation about abortion drugs.