Playing Russian Roulette with women’s lives

When the Trump administration released Harvard data suggesting a possible link between Tylenol use in pregnancy and autism, the internet erupted with outrage and efforts to disprove the data. Those who dislike the administration were primed for outrage, but we should be seeking causes for a condition as widespread as autism.

Selective outrage triggered by political interests is a common phenomenon. We also see this with the abortion pill, where women’s health advocates inexplicably downplay its serious risks to women.

We certainly didn’t hear them speaking out about a situation like the one Liana Davis found herself in. When Davis became unexpectedly pregnant, she knew the father might pressure her to abort. She never thought he’d try to facilitate the abortion himself, without her consent.

Recently, Davis filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Chris Cooprider, after he allegedly spiked her drink with mail order abortion pills that ended the life of their unborn child. She says that Cooperider, after secretly crushing the pills into Davis’s hot chocolate, left her without transportation to the hospital when she began bleeding, a delay that endangered her life. By the time she reached the emergency room, it was too late to save the baby. 

Court-documented text messages reveal that for weeks after discovering Davis’s pregnancy, Cooprider aggressively pushed her to abort—even procuring abortion pills himself through Aid Access, an international mail-order abortion pill business. Messages show Davis upset with Cooprider for purchasing the pills, writing, “I’m not okay with you buying something like that without my permission.” 

Davis consistently resisted Cooprider’s push to abort, even saying, “I can’t wait to hold that gorgeous baby” and asking him to stop telling her to “get rid of it.” 

After Davis failed to relent, Cooprider shifted tactics. He offered to come over, watch movies, and relax over a hot drink to lower the relational tension. These actions suggest classic first-degree murder—a “pre-meditated intent to kill.”  That night, he allegedly mixed the pills into Davis’s drink, telling her that warm drinks had recently been helping him relax and sleep better. 

Less than an hour later, she began bleeding heavily and after Cooprider left to “get help,” she realized what he had done. Davis texted him, “I am gushing blood. Please hurry,” but he never returned. 

An EPPC lawsuit filed on her behalf states, “Davis realized that Cooprider had poisoned her (and her baby) with the abortion pills that he had bought, and that he had abandoned her and lied to delay Davis from obtaining medical care that might save her unborn daughter.”

Before Davis’s finally got a ride, she found empty abortion pill bottles with Cooprider’s name on them in her home. The baby, a girl she named Joy, died at the hospital. Davis could easily have died as well, given the documented risks of the abortion pill. This pill is lauded as a quick and harmless solution, but it can be perilous to both woman and child. 

A study released earlier this year from the Ethics and Public Policy Center shows that more than 10% of women who took the Mifepristone pill experienced sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or other serious problems within 45 days. 

Without medical treatment for her bleeding, Davis’s other three children could have been left motherless. If she’d been further along than she realized, the outcome could have been tragic as well. The abortion pill is only approved for use before 10 weeks of pregnancy, so a miscalculation can be deadly.

After taking the abortion pill, women experience traumatic and severe bleeding. The cramping and blood can be agonizing, and many women go through it alone. No matter how mainstream abortion becomes, shame and isolation are ever-present for many. Nausea, vomiting, fever, chills, diarrhea, and headaches are just the physical side of it.  Heartbreak, guilt, and regret often follow women for years afterward. 

Nevertheless, when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, abortion advocates began pushing the abortion pill like it was ibuprofen for a headache. Perhaps this is why Cooprider apparently thought it was no big deal to procure the pills himself and administer them without Davis’s knowledge. 

It should not be national policy that a woman can take an abortion pill without medical supervision or an honest understanding of the potential consequences. Not knowing you’ve taken it could lead to further consequences, confusion, and lack of adequate medical care.

Slipping someone abortion pills without consent, as Cooprider allegedly did, is unthinkable to most—yet casual rhetoric and easy access made it possible. The Charlotte Lozier Institute found that nearly 70% of the women who had abortions said they were “coerced, pressured, or inconsistent with their own values and preferences.” 

Cooprider’s alleged actions were beyond inappropriate and illegal, but women have abortions every day at the whims of their partners who beg, threaten, or simply ask them to. More than 70% of women say finances and “partner-related reasons” are why they seek abortions. In other words, the vast majority of women who have abortions don’t really want abortions. 

In Davis’s case, wrongful death is the right charge. But, if we can classify abortion pills given by the father as tools in a “wrongful death,” it shifts the abortion conversation for everyone. After all, an abortion always ends with the “wrongful death” of an innocent human being. 

If outrage is the standard, save it for the abortion pill—not for Trump’s warnings about Tylenol.