Mr./Madam President,

Abortion is always a tragedy, as it is the taking of an innocent human life.

And in the case of chemical abortion, it sometimes takes two lives: that of the baby and the mother.

Advocates for this procedure will say that it is simple, easy, and safe. They claim it is a good and valuable form of “healthcare” for women.

Mr./Madam President, nothing could be further from the truth. The grim and gruesome reality is that this practice wreaks havoc on women’s bodies and destroys the tiny bodies growing within them.

Just how does this procedure work? The details are not pleasant.

First, the mother is given a pill that blocks progesterone – a hormone necessary for pregnancy – and breaks down the lining of her uterus. Without progesterone, the baby, whose heart is already beating, is starved to death and dies in her mother’s womb.

Then, 24 to 48 hours later, the mother is given a second pill that empties her uterus by causing severe contractions and bleeding, mimicking an early miscarriage that can last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks.

Planned Parenthood will try to gloss over the truth, claiming that a hot shower and some ibuprofen are enough for a quick recovery to get the mother back on her feet.

But on average, the miscarriage lasts between 9 to 16 days and can last for as long as 30 days.

Most of the time these abortions are done at home; so the mother is left to suffer alone, without care or supervision from a doctor, and often without any follow-up until 7 to 14 days later – if ever.

The result? Women have suffered tragic, gruesome, and horrific experiences from using the abortion pill.

It has caused nearly 4,200 adverse medical events – including more than 1,000 hospitalizations, and nearly 600 instances of blood loss requiring transfusions.

Some women have even died. The FDA has reported 24 maternal deaths from the abortion pill since its approval in 2000. And those are just the officially reported ones that we know of that have happened even with the regulations we currently have in place.

Some women need corrective surgery after taking the abortion pill, and others need life-saving procedures.

And somehow, we call this “healthcare.”

Mr./Madam President, this is not like popping some Tylenol.

This two-step chemical cocktail poses severe risks to women, not to mention unborn babies. In fact, abortion pills are one of only a few medications that require a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, a drug safety program that the FDA requires for medications with serious risks.

And yet, some are pushing to further expand access to these drugs and further loosen the regulations around them. Some activists are even pushing for access to the abortion pill by mail – meaning that the patient would never have to be seen in person at all.

The standards of care surrounding this practice are already reckless and harmful. In fact, they are unacceptable standards of care for women and babies. The last thing we should be doing is making them even worse.

That’s why we ought to support the bill put forward by my friend and colleague, Senator Hyde-Smith. The SAVE Moms and Babies Act would prohibit the FDA from approving new abortion drugs, from loosening any regulations that exist on already-approved abortion drugs, and from dispensing abortion drugs remotely or through the mail.

The purpose of healthcare is to heal, preserve, and protect human life, Mr./Madam President.

A chemical abortion happens in the first trimester of life, up to the tenth week of pregnancy, when an unborn baby already has a beating heart, a growing brain, all ten fingers and all ten toes. And she deserves a shot at the life in front of her – not to have it taken away and, literally, flushed down a drain.

And mothers deserve the utmost care, protection, and support as they nurture human life inside them – not medical harm or neglect.

Our healthcare system should protect and care for them both, and our laws should uphold the immeasurable dignity and worth of them both.

This bill is a step in the right direction, and I urge my colleagues to support it.