Haile McAnally says abortion pills left her unconscious in a bathtub and in need of a blood transfusion.
She is on Capitol Hill this week asking lawmakers to limit mail-order mifepristone so other women are not sent home to bleed alone.
McAnally, of Omaha, Nebraska, was a high school student and a registered Democrat when she learned she was pregnant. She had always wanted to be a mother.
After she told the baby’s father, she said, “He asked me what I was gonna do about it and hung up the phone, and I haven’t talked to him since.”
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She went to Planned Parenthood.
“I remember seeing the pink signs everywhere and the marketing that says … the sisterhood will take care of you,” she said.
She was scared and young. “That was a very enticing message.”
She described the clinic as cold and dark and smelling of rubbing alcohol. Staff did not ask about her medical history.
“They took my money, and they sent me back to this room where … this doctor was going to walk me through everything that was going to happen that day,” she said. “He didn’t know me from Adam. He really didn’t ask about my background and anything medical that’s ever happened.”
She was given one abortion pill at the clinic and told to take a second at home. She said medical staff warned her it would feel like “a more intense period” and recommended a heating pad and tea.
“I followed that protocol, went home, took the second pill, and I found myself on the toilet in the bathroom where bleeding occurred, which was exactly what they said,” McAnally said. “But after about two hours, I was still bleeding out. And I started feeling really weak. I knew that what was happening was not right, but I couldn’t really comprehend what was going on.”
She dragged herself into the bathtub. Her phone was out of reach. She later said she tried to call the abortion center and no one answered.
“I just laid there and thought that was the moment that everything was over, and, partially, I felt like it was punishment for me making that decision.”
A friend found her unconscious in the tub and called 911.
McAnally woke up in a hospital after a blood transfusion.
“The abortion drugs almost killed me,” she has said.
“Planned Parenthood told us that this is what is women empowerment. This is what women do when they can’t handle it. They take this route, and they don’t acknowledge the pain it causes,” she said. “The same pills I took under direction of medical professionals, they can be shipped anywhere at any time.”
McAnally said questions about her complications were shut down: “You can’t talk about it. You can’t talk about it because it’s not part of our agenda. It’s not a part of our platform to talk about any complications this may have.”
She expected condemnation from pro-life people.
Instead, she said, “the right was so forgiving and so loving and really embraced my story.”
She became a pro-life Republican, testified in Nebraska for a heartbeat bill, and now warns other women.
She is meeting with lawmakers alongside Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser said, “Women who’ve suffered the devastating effects of abortion drugs who are clear-eyed about the lies of the Big Abortion industry are the most effective advocates. Their lives are forever changed, but they’re standing strong and having a powerful impact on Capitol Hill and beyond.”
A study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center said one in 10 women have a “serious adverse event.”
McAnally says she is speaking because the pills almost killed her, her child is gone, and other women are still being told to take the same drugs at home and wait.
