‘I saw my baby:’ After traumatic chemical abortion, woman calls for safety regulations

Jan 23, 2026 / 11:34 am (CNA).

At around 10 weeks, an unborn baby is about the size of a gummy bear. Some mothers may find this out from pregnancy apps or conversations with friends.

Dora Esparza, an abortion drug survivor, found out when she saw her own child in the bathroom after she endured a chemical abortion.

Esparza almost died due to complications from the abortion drug. She made the decision to get an abortion with her boyfriend but quickly regretted it.

Many women have successfully reversed chemical abortions before taking the second pill by taking progesterone. But when Esparza told medical staff at the abortion clinic, they told her that her baby would be born with severe problems if she tried to keep it. So, she took the second pill.

“I saw my baby. No one warned me that that was even a possibility,” Esparza told reporters on Thursday. “Two weeks later, I almost died.” 

Amid claims of being the most pro-life president in history, President Donald Trump’s administration has yet to push through a promised review of the abortion drug mifepristone.

Though many studies have come out showing the danger that unrestricted chemical abortions pose to women, the Trump administration approved a generic version of the drug, further contributing to its spread.

“The push to normalize mail-order abortion drugs is so dangerous and so dishonest,” Esparza said. “Abortion drugs distributed to me in person at a facility almost killed me. How much more dangerous are they when they’re shipped through the mail with no ultrasound, no information of gestational age, no follow-up appointment, and no real accountability?”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of SBA Pro-Life America, said the Trump administration has the power to implement safety restrictions.

“The bottom line is, just as the policy that we seek was instituted in the Trump 1 [his first administration], it could be instituted today or tomorrow while they study,” Dannenfelser told reporters on Thursday.

“The only response that we have been given is: ‘It’s important to abide by scientific guidelines and we are going to study it,’” she said. “We’ve also heard, through a Bloomberg story, that there is a strong desire to wait until after midterms, which is a political, nonscientific reason to fail to do this study.” 

Dannenfelser said she hopes the Trump administration will announce a change in the abortion pill policy Jan. 23 at the March for Life.

“What an incredible thing it would be to address the most urgent and consequential issue in the pro-life movement right now — and that would be the reinstitution of Trump’s policy from his first administration.

“It would give states back their sovereignty,” she said. “States would be allowed to enforce their laws because as you should know by now, the abortion rate has gone way up, over a million, at least, as far as we can track. Abortion rates are going up in pro-life states.”

Chemical abortion drugs can be easily transported across state lines, stockpiled, or even slipped into women’s drinks.

Multiple cases have been reported where the father of the unborn child has allegedly coerced or poisoned the mother with the abortion drug.

Dr. Ingrid Skop, a spokesperson for the Charlotte Lozier Institute and an OB-GYN, said the traumatic harm of the abortion drug shows a “lack of informed consent.”

“The pregnancy centers I work with have received frequent frantic calls from girls and women encountering the recognizable body of their child in the toilet about the size of a gummy bear at 10 weeks’ gestation,” Skop said. “What should she do now? Flush him? Bury him? The emotional harms of this experience can’t be quantified.”

“What these women experience and the trauma that follows demonstrate clearly they are not receiving adequate informed consent,” Skop said. “Many are genuinely shocked by the degree of pain, bleeding, and emotional distress they endure — proof that abortion drugs are being sold to women without honest counseling about what they actually do.”

“This lack of informed consent is made worse by the FDA’s deregulation of these abortion drugs,” she continued. “Today, no in-person exam or labs are required, no ultrasound is mandated, no physician must be present, no follow-up is considered necessary, and there is no federal requirement for complication reporting unless it results in a woman’s death.” 

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/269289/i-saw-my-baby-after-traumatic-chemical-abortion-woman-calls-for-safety-regulations