The abortion industry sold America on the promise that the abortion pill is safer than Tylenol.
Nebraska's Haile McAnally trusted the clinic when she swallowed the second pill at home.
Two hours later she was still bleeding, and what happened next sent her all the way to Capitol Hill.
Haile McAnally Was Young, Pregnant, and Surrounded by Pink Signs
McAnally was just out of high school when she got pregnant.
She had always dreamed of being a mother.
Her boyfriend didn't share the dream.
"He asked me what I was gonna do about it and hung up the phone, and I haven't talked to him since," McAnally told Fox News Digital.
She was scared to raise a baby alone, and the abortion movement was ready with a sales pitch.
"I remember seeing the pink signs everywhere and the marketing that says … the sisterhood will take care of you," she said.
To a frightened young woman with nobody in her corner, that promise sounded like a lifeline.
What Happened After She Took Misoprostol, the Second Abortion Pill
McAnally walked into an abortion facility she remembers as cold and dark.
"They took my money, and they sent me back to this room," she said.
The doctor who handled her consent "didn't know me from Adam," she said, and didn't really ask about her medical history.
She swallowed the first pill at the facility – the drug that blocks the hormone her baby needed to survive.
Then she went home to take the second, exactly as she was told.
At first, the bleeding looked like what the clinic said to expect.
Then it didn't stop.
"After about two hours, I was still bleeding out," she said.
"I started feeling really weak."
She made it to the bathtub, but the blood kept coming.
"I just laid there and thought that was the moment that everything was over," she said.
Part of her believed it was punishment for her decision.
Then everything went black.
Her friend came home, found McAnally unconscious in the tub, and called 911.
McAnally woke up in a hospital bed after a blood transfusion.
The baby she once dreamed of raising was gone.
No one from the sisterhood was there.
One in Ten Women Suffer Serious Abortion Pill Side Effects
McAnally's story isn't a freak accident.
The Ethics and Public Policy Center studied insurance records from 865,727 mifepristone abortions between 2017 and 2023.
It found 10.93 percent of women suffered sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days.
That's at least 22 times higher than the "less than 0.5 percent" figure printed on the FDA label.
So much for safer than Tylenol.
And since 2023, those pills can be mailed to a dorm room without the woman ever seeing a doctor in person.
"The same pills I took under direction of medical professionals, they can be shipped anywhere at any time," McAnally said.
She thinks about the college girl ordering them online with no idea what medical condition she might have.
McAnally had a friend walk through the door in time.
That college girl might not.
The tragedy is that real help was out there for a scared young mom like McAnally.
Pregnancy centers served more than one million new clients in 2024, providing over $452 million in free and low-cost care and supplies, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
Not one of them hands a frightened mother a pill and sends her home to bleed alone.
Haile McAnally Took Her Fight Against Mail-Order Abortion Pills to Capitol Hill
McAnally used to be a registered Democrat.
She is a pro-life Republican now.
"I noticed the more I asked questions, the people on the right were more willing to talk about it," she said.
She traveled to Washington with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America in September 2026 to press lawmakers and staffers to rein in mail-order abortion pills.
Planned Parenthood sold women on empowerment, she said, and "they don't acknowledge the pain it causes."
Sen. Josh Hawley's Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act would pull the pill's FDA approval entirely.
Louisiana is in court fighting to bring back the in-person safeguards Biden's FDA stripped away.
In April 2026, U.S. District Judge David Joseph, a Trump appointee, gave the FDA six months to finish its safety review of mifepristone.
SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser has called mifepristone an inherently dangerous drug that doesn't belong where abusers can get their hands on it.
McAnally survived on a friend's lucky timing.
Every woman who swallows these pills alone in a bathroom deserves better than luck – and a doctor who knows her name.
Sources:
- Elizabeth Elkind, "Nebraska woman says abortion pill nearly killed her, heads to Capitol Hill," Fox News, September 23, 2026.
- Cassy Cooke, "Woman says she hemorrhaged in bathtub after taking abortion pill," Live Action News, September 2026.
- Jamie Bryan Hall and Ryan T. Anderson, "The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event," Ethics and Public Policy Center, April 28, 2025.
- Jasmine Baehr, "Abortion pill mifepristone stays available by mail for now as FDA faces 6-month review deadline," Fox News, April 7, 2026.
- Preston Mizell, "Hawley introduces bill to strip FDA approval from 'inherently dangerous' abortion pill," Fox News, March 11, 2026.
- Charlotte Lozier Institute, "Pregnancy Centers Provided Over $452 Million in Services and Goods to Families," Charlotte Lozier Institute, November 17, 2025.
- Kate Scanlon, "Pro-life group urges Blanche to back states' mifepristone challenge," OSV News, July 9, 2026.
