catholiccitizens.org
2023-06-07
More than 20 years ago, Toni McFadden took the abortion pill to end her pregnancy. She was a high school senior, the "good girl" in her family, and she did not want anyone to find out.
She was about seven weeks pregnant when she took the regimen's first drug -- mifepristone -- at an abortion clinic. She was sent home to take the second drug -- misoprostol -- at home. The doctor told her to expect bleeding like a heavy period. When she took the misoprostol, nothing happened. She called the clinic, and was briskly instructed to take a back-up dose she had been given. She did, and there was just a little spotting -- but, since she was told the baby was only the "size of a pea," she thought maybe that was it.
A month-and-a-half later, she was sitting in class when she started to feel "excruciating" pain and began passing blood clots the size of her fist. She realized what was happening, but was unprepared for the pain intensity or blood loss. She called her mother, told her she was experiencing bad menstrual cramping, and went home to sit on the toilet and lay on her bed. She does not remember how long she bled, or if she saw her baby as she passed it in the toilet. "There's a lot of trauma with that," she explained. She does remember laying curled up, in the fetal position.