WARNING: This is an account of an at-home, do-it-yourself abortion service now provided by the Alberta Health Services. It contains graphic and unsettling details about the disposal of human remains.Unwanted babies terminated by at-home do-it-yourself (DIY) chemical abortions are simply flushed down the toilet like ordinary human waste.This is a “ghastly” disposal of human remains, said Richard Dur, volunteer executive director of the 30,000-member Prolife Alberta.A spokeswoman for Calgary’s Medical Abortion Clinic offering DIY chemical abortions via telemedicine — remote phone or virtual consultations — merely referred to the ended life as “products of conception.” “Most just flush it down the toilet,” she said, asking to remain anonymous.Wherever you stand on the abortion issue, that’s something to think about when pouring yourself a glass of water from the tap, or washing hands, dishes, and clothes.The spokeswoman laughed when told Prolife claimed the clinic “recently set up shop” to offer the Alberta Health Care covered abortion services remotely.No, they’ve offered the service since “June 2023” and Red Deer’s Clinic 38 has been offering it “longer” than that.She hailed the convenience, including for females in remote areas, and the privacy of getting rid of unwanted pregnancies in home bathrooms.Any age restrictions on their clientele?“I think it’s the age of consent. I think 16. Yeah, I think. Don’t quote me on that. Any younger, we’ve always had their mothers call us and they are their support system.”Another Calgary abortion clinic handles the younger ones, she said.She assured me of the safety of DIY chemical abortions at her clinic because 'females have access to a 24-hour hotline' and an OBGYN on staff with 35 years’ experience, are given a list of 20 “red flags” to watch out for, are advised when to head in for bloodwork and an ultrasound or rush to emergency.And they are urged not to be alone. (What about women or teens wanting or having to hide the pregnancy from everyone?)Prolife isn’t convinced about the safety on two fronts — health wise and the potential risk to victims of human trafficking.“It turns the bathroom into the back alley. The risks associated with back-alley abortions are transferred to the bathroom,” said Dur.“The woman is entirely alone. High risk, done in secret without proper medical oversight. That’s not the way healthcare, medicine should be conducted.”“Apart from the obvious danger to the life of her baby, prescribing chemical abortions via telemedicine poses significant risks for the pregnant mother,” said Dur.“In-person consultations are necessary to ensure proper medical evaluation and to address complications.”Chemical abortions are supposed to be done in early pregnancy stages. “We only do up until eight weeks. A medical abortion should only be done up until a maximum of nine weeks depending on the doctor,” said the clinic spokeswoman.The problem with tele abortions, said Prolife, is “determining gestational age relies solely” on the woman’s or teen’s best guess.“And it’s more difficult to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy during and after chemical methods of abortion due to similar symptoms,” said Dur.Without in-person consultations “complications that can lead to the death of both the mother and her baby.”READ MORE A 2022 Charlotte Lozier Institute study found that risks associated with chemical abortions are four times greater than with surgical abortions and that one in five women will suffer complications including infections. Women self-administering chemical abortions are 50% more likely to visit an emergency department within 30 days of doing so.Meanwhile, there’s the legitimate argument that the secrecy DIY abortions afford, places women at greater risk.“There’s a heightened risk of exploitation to vulnerable women, women who are being trafficked. This prolongs that trafficking without detection,” said Dur.“I think it should be required of abortionists to screen for possible trafficking, exploitation, coercion.”How can anyone thoroughly screen potential victims on the phone or Zoom?“Premier Danielle Smith has made announcements about wanting to combat human trafficking. This would be one of the ways to go about doing that to ensure the safety of vulnerable segments of the population,” said Dur.READ MOREIn February, the Alberta government allocated $4 million to bolster the efforts of 20 organizations across the province to combat human trafficking. It also appointed Paul Brandt and Angela Adsit as co-chairs for the Alberta Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons (AOCTIP) board of directors. Prolife has called and emailed Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, but to date, received no reply.The Western Standard reached out to LaGrange’s office and received a link to healthcare services covered by Alberta Health.“The determination of a treatment is a clinical decision of the responsible physician and is based on medical information and patient need,” was the only comment in an email.A request for comment on Prolife’s concerns, including the human trafficking dangers, has received no reply yet.Prolife is hardly alone in raising concerns about the potential for exploitation. In fact, the Heritage Foundation pointed out even more dangers, including babies being born alive that are flushed down toilets, and the risks of unwilling females being more easily coerced into having unwanted abortions. READ MOREThe abortion clinic spokesperson explained that when a client calls a tele appointment is booked. “We do an intake to get their personal health care number so we can verify who they are, what age they are, all of their critical information, every everything just like if you would be going to a doctor’s office. There’s nothing different there whatsoever.”The clinic’s doctor will “ensure” client is not on medications that cannot be taken with the chemical abortion drug mifepristone that’s prescribed along with misoprostol in two steps 24 hours apart.At home. Alone. With no one monitoring to ensure that the person prescribed the chemical abortion pills is the person who took the chemical abortion pills.“After Step 2 that’s when most of everything will come out and get relieved from the body,” she said.Most of everything.The chemical abortion kits can be picked up at a pharmacy or mailed to homes.“We prefer pharmacies … no matter what, a pharmacist has to dispense that medication … The pharmacy has to do their due diligence, contact the patient if they have some coverage.”“There isn’t medical abortion clinics all over that they can access. We have women that are eight, 10 hours away from us in the middle of nowhere and they would have been forced to have a baby that they didn’t want.”Do these women in remote areas all have immediate access to emergency rooms?Prolife is also concerned about the “psychological hardship” on females who self-administer abortions “knowing that she has killed her own baby, by her own hand.”It has called on the Alberta government to make adverse-event reporting for mifepristone mandatory, remove the chemical abortion process from telemedicine, and require doctors to provide the same standard of medical care for survivors of abortions as required for newborns of the same gestational age.This wouldn’t restrict abortion, but “could save a newborn child’s life,” said Dur.“We’re encouraging everyone to reach out to their MLA and to Health Minister LaGrange to let her know about the dangers and risks, complications, abuse and misuse that these chemical abortions pose to mothers and their babies.”The objective of Prolife Alberta is to “promote prolife public policy in Alberta through politics.”“In this day and age somehow its acceptable to kill babies in the womb for profit at public expense at a rate of almost 12,000 babies a year.”The Canadian Institute of Health reported 26 known live-birth abortions in Alberta and 149 Canada-wide in 2022.Of course, there’s no way of knowing how many, if any, live “products of conception” are flushed down the toilet.
