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“Safer Than Tylenol” is Deliberate Medical Abortion Disinformation

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February 26, 2023 nancyvalko abortion, culture, medical ethics, Planned Parenthood, pro-life

February 23, 2023, the Attorney General of Connecticut issued a press release “Attorney General Tong Sues FDA Over Unlawful, Unnecessary Restrictions on Medication Abortion Drug”, stating that:

“Attorney General William Tong today joined a multistate federal lawsuit against the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) accusing it of singling out one of the two drugs used for medication abortions for excessively burdensome regulation, despite ample evidence that the drug is safer than Tylenol.” (Emphasis added)

In April, 2021, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) lifted a requirement for women to have in-person visits with their doctors before receiving medication abortions. and a February 17, 2022 Bloomberg article titled “The Abortion Pill Is Safer Than Tylenol and Almost Impossible to Get” argued for medication abortion pills by mail.

As Dr. Christina Francis, a board-certified OB/GYN and chair of the board of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), wrote in a 5/21/2021 article titled “The government’s abortion pill policy puts mothers’ lives at risk-As an OB-GYN, I know that allowing women to access abortion drugs through telemedicine is the wrong move“, stating:

“The medication regime for these abortions has real risks. When Mifepristone,
the first-stage medication in a chemical abortion, was first approved in 2000, it was
only approved with safety regulations in place (later known as REMS) that would
minimize the significant risk of hemorrhage, retained fetal tissue and infection.
These REMS were then relaxed in 2016 by the FDA absent any further safety testing
and despite mounting evidence of significant adverse events and maternal deaths….

For unknown reasons, however, the FDA also made the decision in 2016 to stop
collecting data on nonfatal adverse events related to Mifepristone, instead only
collecting data on maternal fatalities related to the drug. This change ignores the
women who may show up to their local emergency rooms with severe complications
potentially caused by the drug — women whose lives are typically saved not by their
abortionist, but by an on-call physician at the hospital. (Emphasis added)”

And:

One of the most significant reasons why an in-person visit has been required is for
proper medical oversight as well as a physical exam and ultrasound. These visits are
meant to accurately assess the gestational age of a woman’s pregnancy, as well as rule
out ectopic pregnancy, which is life threatening. The difference in size of an 8-weekold and 12-week-old preborn child is significant”

Mifepristone abortions are only approved for use up to 10 weeks gestation because the complication rates increase significantly beyond this stage.

IS THIS JUST PRO-LIFE PROPAGANDA?

The Cleveland Clinic, a respected healthcare institution and NOT pro-life, has a section:

“Who should NOT get a medical abortion?

Medical abortion is not a safe option for those who:

  • Are too far along in the pregnancy.
  • Have a pregnancy outside of the uterus (ectopic pregnancy).
  • Have a blood clotting disorder or significant anemia.
  • Have chronic adrenal failure.
  • Use long-term corticosteroids.
  • Have an intrauterine device (IUD).
  • Have an allergy to the medications used.
  • Do not have access to emergency care.
  • Can’t return for a follow-up visit.

It is important to discuss your medical history with your healthcare provider before a medical abortion procedure.” (Emphasis added)

So, how can abortion pills by mail be safe?

It is also disturbing that now CVS and Walgreens Plan to Offer Abortion Pills Where Abortion Is Legal”. The two chains said they would begin the certification process under a new FDA regulation that will allow retail pharmacies to dispense the prescription pills for the first time.

It is also disturbing that now the two chains said they would begin the certification process under a new FDA regulation that will allow retail pharmacies to dispense the prescription pills for the fist time.

Even worse, the American Pharmacists Association said in a statement that it had urged the FDA “to level the playing field by permitting any pharmacy that chooses to dispense this product to becomes certified.” (Emphasis added)

CONCLUSION

Not surprisingly, unmentioned in these articles is informing the woman about the abortion reversal option that I wrote about in my 3/20/2018 blog titled “What You Need to Know About Medical Abortion and Abortion Reversal”

However, the pro-abortion ACOG (the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) condemns abortion reversal, claiming that “Facts Are Important: Medication Abortion “Reversal” Is Not Supported by Science”, stating that “”So-called abortion “reversal” procedures are unproven and unethical“. They maintain this despite citing a “A 2012 case series reported on six women who took mifepristone and were then administered varying progesterone doses. Four continued their pregnancies. This is not scientific evidence that progesterone resulted in the continuation of those pregnancies.” And the article admits that “A 2020 study intending to evaluate medication abortion reversal in a controlled, IRB-approved setting was ended early due to safety concerns among the participants.” (Emphasis added).

As I wrote in my May, 2019 blog “New Study on Progesterone to Prevent Miscarriage Supports Use in Abortion Reversal“:

“(M)edical abortions can often be reversed by taking progesterone if the mother changes her mind after the first abortion pill to block progesterone is given but she hasn’t yet taken the second pill to expel the baby. There is now a website at www.abortionpillreversal.com for information on abortion reversal that includes a hotline phone number at 1-877-558-0333.

But according to Planned Parenthood :

 “…(only) a handful of states require doctors and nurses to tell their patients about (abortion reversal treatment) before they can provide abortion care. But these claims haven’t been proven in reliable medical studies — nor have they been tested for safety, effectiveness, or the likelihood of side effects — so experts like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reject these untested supposed treatments.” (Emphasis added)

Why don’t we all deserve to know all the facts and all the options like crisis pregnancy centers and abortion reversal when it comes to abortion instead of relying on a mostly biased media, Planned Parenthood and wealthy, pro-abortion healthcare provider organizations?

As a society, we can’t afford not to know!

NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR SIGNS LATEST US LAW TO LEGALIZE ASSISTED SUICIDE AS ARKANSAS GOVENOR SIGNS THE “MEDICAL ETHICS AND DIVERSITY ACT”

nancyvalko assisted suicide, conscience rights, culture, end-of-life, law, medical ethics, nursing, Uncategorized

On April 8, 2021, New Mexico became the latest and ninth state (along with Washington D.C.) to legalize “medically assisted suicide”.

Note the new terminology used is no longer called “physician-assisted suicide”. This is no accident but rather reflects the persistent expansion of assisted suicide law to allow even non-physicians like physician assistants and nurse practitioners to determine that a requesting patient has six months or less to live and provide them with the suicide drugs.

Ironically, Medicare benefit rules for certifying a terminal illness with a life expectancy of six months or less to be eligible for hospice states that “No one other than a medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy can certify or re-certify a terminal illness”. (Emphasis added) And having worked as a home hospice, ICU and oncology nurse, I know how difficult it is to predict when a patient is expected to die.

And, like other assisted suicide laws, New Mexico’s law also has unenforceable and easily circumvented “safeguards’ like mental health evaluations that are required for any other suicidal patient.

The law also requires that terminally ill patients has “a right to know” about all legal options including assisted suicide and that healthcare providers who refuse to participate in medically assisted suicide must refer that patient to another willing provider.

Nevertheless, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Grisham said she signed the law HB0047 to secure the “peace of mind and humanity this legislation provides.”

THE MEDICAL ETHICS AND DIVERSITY ACT

In a striking contrast to New Mexico’s assisted suicide law, Governor Asa Hutchison signed the “Medical Ethics and Diversity Act” just days earlier on Friday, March 26, 2021 which expanded conscience rights in the state.

As the statute eloquently states:

“The right of conscience is a fundamental and unalienable right.

“The right of conscience was central to the founding of the United States, has been deeply rooted in the history and tradition of the United States for centuries, and has been central to the practice of medicine through the Hippocratic oath for millennia … The swift pace of scientific advancement and the expansion, of medical capabilities, along with the notion that medical practitioners, healthcare institutions, and healthcare payers are mere public utilities, promise only to exacerbate the current crisis unless something is done to restore the importance of the right of conscience.

It is the public policy of this state to protect the right of conscience of medical practitioners, healthcare institutions, and healthcare payers. It is the purpose of this subchapter to protect all medical practitioners, healthcare institutions, and healthcare payers from discrimination, punishment, or retaliation as a result of any instance of conscientious medical objection.”

However, opponents of the law like the Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union, have argued that it would allow doctors to refuse to offer a host of services for LGBTQ patients.

In response to this criticism, Governor Hutchinson stated:

“I have signed into law SB289, the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act. I weighed this bill very carefully, and it should be noted that I opposed the bill in the 2017 legislative session. The bill was changed to ensure that the exercise of the right of conscience is limited to ‘conscience-based objections to a particular health care service.’ I support this right of conscience so long as emergency care is exempted and conscience objection cannot be used to deny general health service to any class of people. Most importantly, the federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, gender, and national origin continue to apply to the delivery of health care services.”

CONCLUSION

As a nurse myself, I would not and never have refused to care for any patient. Discrimination has no place in healthcare.

However, I have been threatened with termination when I have refused to follow an order that would cause a patient’s death. It wasn’t the patient I objected to but rather the action ordered.

Conversely, I would not want a healthcare provider caring for me who supports assisted suicide, abortion, etc. This is why I ask my doctors about their stands on such issues before I become their patient.

Our country and our healthcare systems need laws, healthcare providers and institutions that we can trust to protect us. Conscience rights protections are a critical necessity for that to happen.

Correction to Previous Blog

nancyvalko Uncategorized

I just discovered that when I published my blog “They are Lying to Us!” , I had inadvertently included information about another bill for which I was writing testimony. The line is “Such lethal injections are now approved in HB 2739 when “my attending provider may assist in the administration of the medication if I am unable to self-administer the medication due to my terminal illness.” (p. 30, lines 15-17).” The Hawaii bill does not include that provision. I have now corrected this on my blog.

My apologies!

Nancy V.

My Oral Submission to the New Zealand Health Committee Regarding Physician-assisted Suicide on March 5, 2017

nancyvalko assisted suicide, law, medical ethics, nursing, Uncategorized

As a nurse and legal consultant in the USA with 47 years of experience in the most challenging areas of medicine such as critical care, oncology, burn unit and hospice, I have seen many of the most challenging cases in medicine. I also have professional and personal experience with suicidal people, including my own 30 year old daughter Marie who died using an assisted suicide technique that she found searching the internet and after a 16 year struggle with drug addiction. I have worked with many suicidal people, including some with terminal illness. To my knowledge, my daughter was the only one lost to suicide.

I have previously submitted written testimony about physician-assisted suicide and I would like to follow up with two crucial issues that I feel must be addressed.

First I will discuss how physician-assisted suicide empowers doctors, not patients. Second, I’ll share a nurse’s perspective.

1. Physician-assisted suicide empowers doctors, not patients.

Society has long insisted that health care professionals adhere to the highest standards of ethics as a form of protection for society. The vulnerability of a sick person and the inability of society to monitor every health care decision or action are powerful motivators to enforce such standards.

However in physician-assisted suicide, unlike any other medical intervention, any licensed doctor of any experience or specialty is granted immunity from “civil or criminal liability or professional disciplinary action for participating in good faith compliance “with an assisted suicide law[1].  The doctor or doctors involved are the ones to decide whether or not the patient is eligible, not the patient.

All the doctor is required to do is fill out a prescription and state forms. The usual standards for caring for a suicidal person including  intensive management[2]  are changed in physician-assisted suicide to “If, in the opinion of the attending physician or the consulting physician, a patient may be suffering from a psychiatric or psychological disorder or depression causing impaired judgment, either physician shall refer the patient for counseling.”[3] (Emphasis added). Not surprisingly, only 3.8% of people using physician-assisted suicide in Oregon were referred for psychiatric evaluation in 2016[4].

This is dangerous medical discrimination in treatment standards for suicidal people.

In addition, since the doctor is not required to be present or examine the patient after death, any complications or other problems must be self-reported by the doctor to the state. Even the death certificate must be falsified to report the death as from natural causes rather than the lethal overdose.[5]  This violates the standards set by the Centers for Disease Control which require accuracy because, among other issues, “The death certificate is the source for State and national mortality and is used to determine which medical conditions receive research and development funding, to set public health goals, and to measure health status at local, State, national, and international levels.”[6]

The  immunity protections and the secrecy of even the minimal self-reporting standards in US assisted suicide laws eliminates the possibility of future potential lawsuits or prosecutions and keeps the myth of “no problems, no abuses” alive.

2. A Nurse’s Perspective

The dangers of the legalization of physician-assisted suicide are especially acute for us nurses. Unlike doctors, we nurses cannot refuse to care for a patient in a situation like assisted suicide unless another willing nurse can be found which can be impossible. If we do refuse, that is considered abandonment and cause for discipline and even termination. And we are necessarily involved when the assisted suicide act occurs in home health, hospice or health care facility even though the prescribing doctor is not required to be there.

And these deaths are not guaranteed quick, painless or even possible in some circumstances. As a new December 21, 2016 Kaiser Health News article revealed, doctors are trying new drugs because the old drugs are becoming too expensive and taking too long to work. Unfortunately, some new alternative drugs have “turned out to be too harsh, burning patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain”.[7]

Like most nurses, I have worked over the years with a variety of doctors who are at various points on the spectrum on competency and integrity.

Years ago, I was threatened with termination after I refused to increase a morphine drip “until he stops breathing” on a man who would not stop breathing after his ventilator was removed and no other nurse was available to take over the patient. The patient was presumed to have had a stroke when he did not wake up from sedation after 24 hours. I reported the situation up the chain of command at my hospital but no one supported me. I loved my profession and at that time, I was the sole support of three young children but I knew that nothing was worth betraying the trust of my patients.

I escaped termination that time but I refused to back down. Soon after, every nurse on a medical division of nurses refused to give an overdose to a patient and told the doctor that he would have to give it himself. The doctor cancelled the order.

Legalizing physician-assisted suicide can force nurses like us to leave healthcare, leaving no reliable safe haven for people who don’t want to end their lives.

Does anyone really want to entrust our healthcare system just to people who are comfortable with ending lives? I don’t.

FOOTNOTES

[1] “Oregon Revised Statute. 127.885s.01. Online at: https://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Pages/ors.aspx

2 “Evaluation and Treatment of the Suicidal Patient” . American Family Physician. Online at http://www.aafp.org/afp/2012/0315/p602.html

3 “Evaluation and Treatment of the Suicidal Patient” .American Family Physician. Online at http://www.aafp.org/afp/2012/0315/p602.html

4 “Oregon Death with Dignity Act Date Summary” .Online at https://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Documents/year19.pdf

5 : “Washington state “Death with Dignity Act”. Online at http://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/IllnessandDisease/DeathwithDignityAct/DeathCertificateInstructions

6 CDC Medical Examiners’ and Coroners’ Handbook on Death Registration and Fetal Death Reporting”. CDC. Online at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/hb_me.pdf

7 “Docs  In Northwest Tweak Aid-In-Dying Drugs To Prevent Prolonged Deaths” by JoNel Aleccia. Kaiser Health News. February 21, 2017. Online at http://khn.org/news/docs-in-northwest-tweak-aid-in-dying-drugs-to-prevent-prolonged-deaths/

Urgent: Will Congress Stop the Washington D.C. Assisted Suicide Law in Time? Write Now!

nancyvalko assisted suicide, Compassion & Choices, law, medical ethics, Uncategorized

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser  quietly signed an assisted suicide bill into law on December 19, 2016 after a majority of the city council voted for it.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the Congress has exclusive legislative authority over the District of Columbia. Congress has just 30 legislative days to review a law of the District of Columbia once it is passed by the city government. Resolutions of disapproval must be passed by both houses and be signed by the president to block a D.C. law.

In a race against time, the first step  to block the assisted suicide law was taken January 12, 2017 by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) who introduced introducing a resolution in the Senate that opposes D.C.’s  “Death With Dignity Act”.

A companion resolution was introduced in the House by Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) also said that he would push to block the law.

COMPASSION AND CHOICES HAS ALREADY STARTED A LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE ASSISTED SUICIDE IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

In a message to assisted suicide supporters, Compassion and Choices claims that “more than 2400 supporters” have “sent more than 7,000 messages to members of Congress”.  The organization also emphasizes “the importance of including your personal testimony” as “often the most effective way to change the minds of lawmakers”.

HOW TO CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMAN OR CONGRESSWOMAN TO OPPOSE  ASSISTED SUICIDE IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

The National Right to Life Committee has a website link   to “Nullify District of Columbia Assisted Suicide Law” to contact your Senators and a separate link to contact your House representative(s). Enter your zip code in the box provided and you will be taken to a list of your congresspersons and a form you fill out to send an email to those representatives or senators with your comments.

HOW TO WRITE COMMENTS

Keep your comments respectful  and address the points that most move you. If you have a personal story about why you are against assisted suicide, write it as clearly and concisely as possible.

PROBLEMS WITH THE ASSISTED SUICIDE BILL

While many legislators (as well as the public) are persuaded by the “safeguards” to support assisted suicide laws, the Washington D.C. bill has many of the same problems with “safeguards” that other assisted suicide bills have. (For example, see my blogs “The slippery Slope-Tactics in the Assisted Suicide Movement” and “Pain and ‘Choice’“.)

In the D.C. assisted suicide law, such problems include:

1.The extraordinary immunity protections against civil, criminal liability or professional  disciplinary actions for doctors who participate in “good faith compliance” with the law.

2. Protection from life or annuity insurance problems due to suicide (“Neither may a qualified patient’s at of ingesting a covered medication have an effect upon a life, health, accident, insurance, or annuity policy”)

3. Minimal reporting requirements and secrecy in public records (“The Department will generate and make available to the public an annual statistical record of information collected”) Emphasis added.

4. Require mental health evaluation only for the purpose of determining if the person is mentally capable to make the decision to end his or her life. (“‘Counseling’ means one or more consultations as necessary between a state licensed psychiatrist or psychologist  and a patient for the purpose of determining that the patient is capable and not suffering from a psychiatric or psychological disorder or depression causing impaired judgment.”)

CONCLUSION

There are many reasons to oppose legalizing assisted suicide including risk for elder abuse, discrimination against people with disabilities and/or terminal or chronic conditions, the destruction of the most basic rule of medical ethics to not kill patients or help them kill themselves, suicide contagion, etc.

Assisted suicide, legalized and approved by society, is a manifestation of despair and abandonment-not empowerment. We cannot afford to be bystanders while others like Compassion and Choices continue to demand that we all accept legalized assisted suicide as a constitutional and civil right.

Oh, Colorado!

nancyvalko assisted suicide, Compassion & Choices, conscience rights, euthanasia, law, medical ethics, Uncategorized

Of course, the big news from the national voting last week was the stunning election of Donald Trump as president. But  barely mentioned by the media except for its passage was  Colorado’s Proposition 106 “End of Life Options Act initiative which won by a 65% to 35% popular vote. Now five states have formally legalized physician assisted suicide. Montana had a court ruling that state physician-assisted suicide is not “against public policy” but no law legalizing assisted suicide has been passed.

I remember going to Colorado about 20 years ago to speak against an assisted suicide bill in the state legislature. Enthusiasm was high and the assisted suicide bill was subsequently voted down in the legislature. But, as in other states including my own Missouri, the assisted suicide proponents never stopped pushing their agenda over and over again.

With their efforts often stymied in state legislatures after robust debate and testimony, well-funded groups like Compassion and Choices turn to the promotion of state initiatives. Colorado now joins Oregon and Washington State in legalizing assisted suicide by popular vote.

However, with groups like Compassion and Choices trying to normalize assisted suicide as just another valid medical decision, medical groups increasingly intimidated into neutrality and an almost entirely sympathetic mainstream media holding up Brittany Maynard as the ultimate poster child, the average person is easily persuaded to not look too closely  at the reality of assisted suicide.

For example, here is just the title of the Colorado ballot measure. There is also a much longer ballot summary and a link to the full proposed law.

“Shall there be a change to the Colorado revised statutes to permit any mentally capable adult Colorado resident who has a medical prognosis of death by terminal illness within six months to receive a prescription from a willing licensed physician for medication that can be self-administered to bring about death; and in connection therewith, requiring two licensed physicians to confirm the medical prognosis, that the terminally-ill patient has received information about other care and treatment options, and that the patient is making a voluntary and informed decision in requesting the medication; requiring evaluation by a licensed mental health professional if either physician believes the patient may not be mentally capable; granting immunity from civil and criminal liability and professional discipline to any person who in good faith assists in providing access to or is present when a patient self-administers the medication; and establishing criminal penalties for persons who knowingly violate statutes relating to the request for the medication?”

But what might have happened if this alternative language was used?

Should Colorado change the Colorado revised statues to permit a licensed doctor of any specialty in conjunction with a similar doctor to write a prescription for a lethal overdose to cause death for any adult resident that the doctors expect to die within 6 months; require mental health evaluation only for the purpose of determining if the person is mentally capable to make the decision to end his or her life; grant immunity for the doctors and others from civil or criminal penalty as long as they claim “good faith” intentions; require that the death certificate falsely state the cause of death as a natural medical condition instead of the lethal overdose; prohibit life insurance policies from being affected by a request for a legal lethal overdose and prohibit  public information about such lethal overdoses except a yearly statistical report as reported by the doctors involved? (Emphasis added)

Of course, we will never know.

But when we allow medical/legal protections and standards to be suspended for some suicidal people considered expendable based on an estimated prognosis and personal fear of even potential pain and/or dependence,  we will inevitably see the pool of potential victims of medical termination expand and lethal injections accepted, as is already  happening in Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland.

Just as bad, we will also be creating a class of medical serial terminators immune from any real oversight and accountability while penalizing ethical health care providers who refuse to participate or refer.

Miracle Baby Comes Home for Christmas

nancyvalko brain injury, end-of-life, medical ethics, Uncategorized

Francesca and Lee Moore-Williams held their beautiful 18 month old daughter Bella’s hand as her ventilator was turned off and they waited for her death. But just 30 minutes later, Bella awoke  “kicking and screaming” according to the UK’s Mirror newspaper article “Miracle baby whose life support was turned off home for Christmas”. Five months later, she is scheduled to come home this Christmas.

Bella’s health became a concern in April when clumps of her hair fell out. Three months later, she took a turn for the worse and was admitted to a hospital in critical condition. Doctors told the parents that a MRI scan showed abnormalities on both sides of her brain and at some point, the decision was made to turn off the ventilator supporting her breathing.

According to the Mirror article:

She was later diagnosed with the genetic disorder Biotinidase deficiency, which is so rare it affects just one in every 60,000 births.

Sufferers of the condition do not produce enough biotin – a vitamin which is essential for healthy cell growth.

The deficiency can be fatal if left untreated but will now be managed safely with tablets.

And today:

Bella, of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, who turns two in January, is now learning to walk and talk and her hair is growing back.

Experts say she is around eight months behind other children her age but she is expected to catch up.

Francesca said: “She’s at nursery and to look at her you wouldn’t think she’s been through what she has.

Perhaps this Christmas “miracle” also holds a message about the need for hope and humility for those of us in the medical professions.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!