Turning a blind eye to women hurt by abortion pills

By Bridget Palm, WRTL Fall 2026 Intern

In 2007, Wisconsin man Manishkumar Patel spiked his pregnant girlfriend’s smoothie with crushed abortion pills in an attempt to kill their unborn child. Since RU486 (mifepristone), the drug he used, was not readily available in the United States, Patel had received the abortion drug from a relative in India. In 2018, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for attempted first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child.

This happened in 2007, almost twenty years ago. At that time, Patel could only easily get abortion drugs internationally. But today, anyone can order abortion pills online from a domestic provider and receive them within days.

Jona Affholder woke up in the middle of the night with her then-boyfriend trying to force crushed abortion pills down her throat. After finding out that she was pregnant several months into their relationship, Affholder was determined to keep her baby. Her boyfriend vehemently opposed this and tried to convince her to get an abortion. When she refused, his demeanor abruptly changed and he pretended to be supportive. However, just a few weeks later, he forced her to ingest abortion drugs that he had purchased online using his ex-wife’s information.

Affholder tried to fight him off, but he prevented her from calling 911 until the drugs had already been absorbed into her body. By the time she got to the ER, it was too late and she lost her baby.

Rosalie Markezich became the central plaintiff in a federal lawsuit in 2025 when her boyfriend coerced her into taking an abortion pill. Markezich loved children and was happy to be pregnant, but her boyfriend, after first expressing excitement, suddenly decided that he wanted her to have an abortion. Despite her assurances that she wanted to keep her baby, he trapped Markezich in his car and forced her to take abortion pills against her will.

Even though she tried to induce vomiting to save her baby, the abortion pills worked anyways, and Rosalie’s baby died. Because Louisiana has protective pro-life laws, Rosalie, along with the State of Louisiana and Alliance Defending Freedom, sued the FDA for enabling her abusive boyfriend to purchase abortion pills online from California.

Cases of abuse like these have been happening in Wisconsin and neighboring states for years. They are becoming increasingly common now, because of the ease of ordering abortion pills online.

Dr. Christina Francis, a board-certified OB-GYN, tested out whether an online abortion pill website had any real safeguards in place to protect women.

She filled out the intake form claiming to be a thirteen-year-old girl on blood thinners, with an IUD, a history of three C-sections, and an ectopic pregnancy. In a doctor’s office, any one of these would have immediately prevented her from getting abortion pills. But through the online site, Dr. Francis got a confirmation email in two minutes and received the pills in four days.

Her identity was never verified, she never received an ultrasound, and she never even spoke to a doctor. The abortion pill provider had no way of knowing whether Dr. Francis was a woman ordering pills for herself, or a husband or boyfriend ordering them against his partner’s will.

These stories are only a few examples of what happens when deregulated abortion pills become widely available. Right now, even though there is a 20-week ban on abortion in Wisconsin, anyone can order abortion pills from out-of-state because of the Biden administration’s changes in FDA regulations.

The abortion industry, supposedly dedicated to protecting women’s rights, now is turning a blind eye to the abusive men who are coercing women into abortions that they do not want. These women and babies deserve justice and protection, not an abortion pill industry that destroys the rights of both of them.