Pete Baklinski is the Communications Director for Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life organization. Those who knew Rheanna Laderoute best described her as kind, clever, and feisty. The blonde haired 19-year-old Ontario girl was treasured by her family and friends for being caring and having a heart of gold. Her friends always appreciated how Rheanna championed the underdog and had an offbeat sense of humour that kept them on their toes. They loved her cleverness in making silly sound effects and imitating voices.All of this tragically came to an end on February 24, 2022, when Rheanna died in the intensive care unit of Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario. While Rheanna’s obituary and a fundraising page for funeral expenses provide no hint as to what caused her death, a detailed account of what happened was recently published by The Globe and Mail. In January 2022, Rheanna and her boyfriend discovered that she was pregnant. Rheanna kept the matter hidden from her family. At the end of January, she secretly drove an hour away from her home to a women’s health clinic in Brampton, Ontario, where she was prescribed the abortion pill Mifegymiso. A Google search reveals that the Brampton Women’s Clinic offers the abortion pill in that same city and describes it as allowing a woman to “have an abortion in the comfort and privacy of their own home.” It describes the abortion pill as working “safely.” .FLETCHER: Orange Shirt Day guilt industry running out of control.The abortion pill operates by means of a two-drug combination taken in the form of pills. The pregnant mother first takes a drug orally called mifepristone, which blocks progesterone — a naturally produced hormone that sustains and nourishes her pregnancy. This shuts down the woman's pregnancy-sustaining mechanism, killing what product literature refers to as a “growing embryo.” After 24–48 hours, the woman then ingests the second drug, misoprostol. This drug initiates powerful uterine contractions that cause the woman to bleed heavily as she expels her dead baby. The abortion pill protocol essentially ends a new human life and forces the mother to prematurely give birth. The abortion pill is offered to mothers in Canada who are less than nine weeks (63 days) pregnant. By this stage of development, the preborn baby has a heart that has already beaten some three million times, has moving fingers and toes, and shows brainwaves. Women who have used the abortion pill describe being unprepared to see a tiny body expelled that is clearly identifiable as human with eyes, ears, arms, and legs. .Rheanna began the abortion pill procedure sometime at the end of January. She took mifepristone to destabilize the lining of her uterus and end her baby’s life. The following day, she took four pills of misoprostol that caused her uterus to contract and evacuate her dead baby. When she first collected the pills in Brampton, she would have likely been told that the bleeding would last three to four hours and could be heavy for up to eight hours. She also would have likely been cautioned that she could continue to experience some bleeding for a few weeks afterward. Was she also told of the risk of severe complications from the abortion pill, including what product literature describes as the “risk of infection and sepsis” for users? “Cases of serious bacterial infection, including very rare cases of fatal septic shock, have been reported following the use of Mifegymiso,” the product’s monograph states. “Clostridium sordellii infection was observed in some women without abdominal pain or fever, that progressed rapidly to multi-organ failure and death,” it adds (emphasis added). A study published this year from the Ethics and Public Policy Center found that serious adverse events from the abortion pill (mifepristone) are 22 times more frequent than the US Food and Drug Administration currently recognizes. The study found that following a mifepristone abortion, over one in ten women (10.93%) experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious or life-threatening adverse event. A report released by Campaign Life Coalition in 2024 found that over 100 Canadian women have been severely harmed by the abortion pill protocol since it first became available in Canada in 2017..BEN-AMI: Note to PM Carney: End the diplomatic virtue signaling, focus on the real problem.Two weeks after using the abortion pill, Rheanna was still experiencing heavy bleeding and abdominal pain. On February 14, she went to the Southlake Regional Health Centre for emergency care, where she told the doctor about her use of the abortion pill. An ultrasound, however, showed no retained fetal or placental remnants. She was discharged after being referred to Southlake’s early pregnancy loss clinic for more testing — something that never happened due to the clinic being given the wrong phone number to contact Rheanna. Another week went by. By now, Rheanna’s abdominal pain was excruciating. She was experiencing nausea and was going through two to three pads a day to soak up a foul-smelling discharge that was oozing out of her body — symptoms described in the abortion pill’s monograph. The doctor suspected a “peritonitic” abdomen, that is, an infection of the lining of the abdominal cavity, and ordered medical imaging, bloodwork, and a urine sample. Six hours later, Rheanna was discharged after receiving a prescription for antibiotics and painkillers. .But about 24 hours later, Rheanna was back in the emergency department via ambulance. She was pale, sweating, and vomiting. Her heart rate had skyrocketed to 175 beats per minute (average is 78-82 beats/minute). She was treated with fluids, morphine, and medications to control the vomiting. About eight hours later, she began receiving broad-spectrum intravenous antibiotics. She was seen by specialists, including a gynecologist. There were requests from nurses to have Rheanna transferred out of the ER to the hospital’s ICU, but those recommendations were ignored. It was only after Rheanna’s heart stopped and she was resuscitated for 22 minutes that she was admitted, on a ventilator and unresponsive, to the ICU. Despite being pumped full of various medicines and receiving surgery to remove litres of pus, Rheanna experienced what doctors called “multi-organ failure” and died on the morning of February 24. Rheanna’s family had only been informed of her dire condition not too many hours before she died. The girl and her boyfriend had kept everything a secret almost until the end. The family made it to the bedside just before Rheanna passed. .EDITORIAL: If Nenshi says the pornographic books are fine in school libraries, bring them to the mic.Sadly, two human persons died in this tragedy, both victims in different ways: a mother and her preborn child. The family lost their daughter, who was also a sister — and a grandchild, who was also a niece or nephew. A postmortem examination found that Rheanna had died from peritonitis and septic shock, but did not pinpoint a source of the infection, although a bacterial infection was suspected. Rheanna’s family, specifically her older sister, began looking for answers regarding the girl’s death, wanting accountability. Rheanna’s 400 pages of medical records were used to go after the doctors who were perceived to have failed her. The case was brought to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which ruled that the doctors failed to provide sufficient care. The College, however, which supports abortion and has advocated for increased availability of the abortion pill, chose not to focus on the role the abortion pill played in Rheanna’s death. The College, along with the Globe article, ignored the elephant in the room — the killer abortion pill. .A report, however, submitted to Canada’s online system that tracks adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs was more forthright. The Canada Vigilance Adverse Reaction Online Database submitted five months after Rheanna died a report from a hospital of a 19-year-old woman who experienced “septic shock” with a “fatal” outcome after using the abortion pill. The Mifegymiso abortion kit was listed as “suspect” in causing the woman’s death. Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) reported on this woman’s death at the time. “This girl did not deserve to die,” said CLC National President Jeff Gunnarson at the time. “She had her whole life ahead of her,” he continued. “Her untimely death is a tragedy that deeply affects everyone involved, including her family, friends, and community. The loss of young lives with so much potential is always devastating. It leaves behind a void that cannot be filled,” he added..ALBERS: Free speech with limits is no freedom at all .The identity of this woman was not known at the time — until now. What Gunnarson said of this woman, who was unknown at the time, still applies now that she has a name and a face. Rheanna truly did not deserve to die. The question remains: Who is responsible for Rheanna’s death? While the medical system may have mismanaged Rheanna’s severe infection, should the doctors and staff be wholly blamed for her death? Should some of the blame be placed on what caused Rheanna’s deadly infection in the first place? The abortion pill explicitly lists “sepsis” and “multi-organ failure” as serious risks, exactly what Rheanna experienced. .If infection from the abortion pill killed Rheanna, then those who let this killer drug combo into the country bear responsibility for her death. Who are they? First, the abortion lobby. Abortion activists across Canada lobbied for approval of the abortion pill, calling it the “gold standard for medical abortion.” On July 29, 2015, Health Canada approved Mifegymiso for its “safety, efficacy, and quality” — even though it already knew about the risk of septic shock and death. A 26-year-old Canadian woman had already died in 2001 from septic shock during a clinical trial of the chemical abortion protocol — exactly what happened to Rheanna. Second, Health Canada bears responsibility itself. The government approved the abortion pill despite knowing that it kills preborn children — and sometimes their mothers. The health minister at the time was Conservative MP Rona Ambrose. While Ambrose headed the department that made the decision, she attempted to deflect responsibility, saying that the approval was “out of my hands and the decision is final." She should have resigned rather than go down in history as the one at the helm when a human pesticide came up for approval. .Finally, the women’s “health” clinic in Brampton, Ontario, which dispensed the abortion pill to Rheanna, bears responsibility. It was here that Rheanna was given the abortion pill with instructions on how to use it. It was here that she made the decision to trust the experts with her life, experts who assure women that the abortion pill is “safe.” Of course, the abortion pill is not safe for anyone. It is certainly not safe for the baby — it is designed to kill new life. And, it is not safe for women either, as too many have unsuspectingly found out the hard way.The truth is that the abortion pill is a killer drug. Can drugs that are designed to exterminate human life at its earliest stages really ever be “safe”? .EDITORIAL: The assassination of Charlie Kirk: The Left’s war on dissent.So, who is ultimately responsible for Rheanna’s death? It’s the abortion lobby, Health Canada, and the women’s health clinic. If not for these pushing the lie of the “gold standard” of medical abortion, Rheanna and her baby could still be with us today — alive and happy.How many more women like Rheanna must die before Health Canada decides to recall the abortion pill? Isn’t one death one too many?Pete Baklinski is the Communications Director for Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life organization. Follow him on X: @PeteBaklinski AKA Pro-life Canadian Man
