Ebay User Sells Abortion Drug Mifepristone for $200 Plus Shipping

LifeNews.com was recently contacted and tipped off that a seller on eBay was selling the abortion drug, mifepristone. When the listing was looked into on July 29, it was no longer available. However, by the morning of July 30, it was not only back up, but had been sold.

The listing has a time stamp of sale ended July 30, 2014 at 05:20:46 PDT. The name of the item sold was nothing more than “Abortion,” and the only description given reads, besides “Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing[,]” is “Done at the privacy at your own home. Instructions are included in the box.”

There is no other legal and/or medical information given.

ebayIt is certainly alarming that a seller would turn to eBay for making a profit off of a woman seeking abortion. The seller sold the drug for $200.00, plus $33.45 for one-day shipping.

According to Planned Parenthood, medication abortion usually costs $300 to $800. As already noted, there is no information given on the page for the item listing. Even Planned Parenthood however notes that this method of abortion is not for everyone, including those who are over nine weeks pregnant and who cannot attend follow-up appointments.

With this type of sale, assuming that only mifepristone is being sold, there is concern as to how effective the drug may be. It is definitely worth wondering what this seller, if anything, is doing to ensure that whomever has bought the mifepristone from them is safely doing so. Of course, it is possible that he or she wishes to assume no liability, as suggested by the disclaimer that “Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.”

The seller then abandons women who may be possibly injured, suffer from a botched or incomplete abortion, or worse, even die. And this is all to make a little over $200.

Worth noting is that the seller is based out of Fort Worth, Texas. With it being a little over a year since the passing of omnibus pro-life legislation, HB2, Texas has certainly been in the news. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upheld that the state of Texas can require the abortion drug be administered according to FDA regulations. The FDA website also specifically warns against buying the drug over the Internet, at the bottom of the page.

The seller should also have been aware of eBay listing policies. With regards to listing medical drugs and devices, eBay does refer to guidelines from the FDA.

Also, there is a page from the FDA website, “Buying Prescription Medicine Online: A Consumer Safety Guide,” which is linked to from the FDA’s page on mifespristone. From the recommendations of the FDA, in addition to there being a warning from the FDA to not buy mifepristone over the internet, it would not seem wise for one to be buying or selling such drugs over eBay. It is questionable then not only that the seller felt they were following eBay’s policies, but that the item was allowed to be sold.

Click here to sign up for daily pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com

Perhaps the most troubling part of the sale is that according to the text of HB2, the person providing the abortion-inducing drug must be a physician. The requirements are also outlined here, in a letter from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The seller makes no claim to mention that he or she is or is not a physician. Also, before providing the drug, the law mentions that a physician must examine the woman and afterwards must provide follow-up care. Even if the seller were to be a physician, no offers of this kind of medical care appear.

One other such eBay policy which the seller violated then is that of “Encouraging illegal activity.” Regardless as to where in the United States the mifepristone may have been sold, the seller does not claim or prove to be a physician who is providing or administering the abortion-drug as required by HB2, according to the provisions which have been ruled as constitutional.

Even if the sale were to be legal, the experience of a medical abortion involves a much less pleasant and more involving reality than the sense of privacy touted by the seller and Planned Parenthood. Abby Johnson, former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic, who herself had two abortions, including one via medication, describes her harrowing experience in her book Unplanned as well as online. Pro-life outlets, including Live Action News and National Right to Life have also written of the disastrous effects of the abortion pill.

Action Alert: Readers may report the listing through the eBay website here or through the item’s listing. The eBay item number is 251602351967.

Feed: