If you follow happenings in the abortion industry closely, you’ve likely heard by now that the FDA reversed a rule that had previously prevented retail pharmacies from dispensing the abortion drug mifepristone.
Immediately following the reversal of that rule, both Walgreens and CVS, the two largest drugstore chains in the country, stated they intend to sell the abortion drug.
Of course, this is not a positive development for the pro-life movement.
However, what surprised me is not that the FDA changed its rule and that Walgreens and CVS are planning to sell the abortion pill.
What surprised me the most is how many pro-lifers were shocked by this move.
It seems to me that many pro-lifers are still seeing the abortion industry through glasses that have outdated lenses.
Through those faulty lenses they still see the abortion industry as it used to be for many decades, not recognizing that the abortion industry has transformed into something entirely different.
The abortion industry’s primary product used to be a surgical abortion of some type conducted by an abortionist, and from a marketing perspective we would say that surgical abortions were “distributed” through abortion facilities located in specific identifiable geographic areas.
If many pro-lifers would replace their outdated lenses with updated lenses allowing them to see the abortion industry as it currently is, not as it used to be, they would clearly see that the abortion industry’s primary product is now the abortion pill, not surgical abortion.
And from a distribution perspective, unlike a surgical abortion, the abortion pill is not in any way “chained” to a specific geographic location like an abortion facility.
The abortion pill is “free to move,” through both legal and illegal means, wherever there is demand for it.
I don’t believe it is overstating it to say that the abortion pill has “unchained” the distribution of the abortion product.
And believe me, the abortion industry is just getting started with new ways to distribute the abortion pill.
I’m afraid we “haven’t seen anything yet.”
Once a pro-lifer sees the abortion industry through updated lenses, and acknowledges this new reality of the abortion pill as the abortion industry’s primary product, he begins to realize that pro-life efforts that seek to restrict access to abortion will likely result in very little, if any, impact at stopping abortions.
In other words, “abortion unchained” from a distribution perspective means laws or other means that seek to restrict the supply of abortion will largely be ineffective.
Does this mean there is no hope for winning against the abortion industry?
There absolutely is hope!
But that hope resides on the demand side of the equation – persuading young women to trust and prefer non-abortion-providing women’s healthcare providers over abortion providers, and very importantly, winning that preference in the minds of young women before they ever face an unexpected pregnancy.
This article was published in Heroic Media‘s weekly newsletter