Urging Congress to take action against the abortion drug mifepristone, a woman named Elizabeth Gillete spoke out Wednesday about her horrific experience with the fatal pill.
Speaking at a press conference organized by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), Gillette gave her story of how the abortion drug had harmed her when she was in her 20s and ended the life of her unborn baby. After pressure from her boyfriend, she said she took an abortion pill and said when the baby was expelled from her body he had recognizable eyes, limbs, and earbuds.
“That was so different from the double period and the extra clotting that they told me that I would experience,” she said. “And in that moment, I had to decide if I was going to throw my child in the trash or flush my child down the toilet, and I chose to flush him into a septic tank.”
She said the whole experience gave her post-traumatic stress disorder.
“And instead of relief, I got horrible nightmares that started, where I would see people dying and people being murdered,” she said. “I would hear infants crying in the trash cans when I walked by them, I would hear infants crying in the toilet. I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which I still suffer from this day.”
Her comments came as Hawley announced Wednesday that he had introduced a bill that would ban the use of mifepristone for abortion nationwide. He said the bill was inspired by how the abortion rate has increased despite the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“There are more abortions now in the United States than there were when Roe was still the law of the land,” Hawley said. “It is time for Congress to ban the use of mifepristone for abortion.”
“Only Congress can address this situation. Only Congress is placed to regulate the flow of interstate drugs,” he added.
The proposal would also allow women who were harmed by the abortion drug to sue the manufacturers for damages.
A companion bill was introduced by Tennessee Republican Diana Harshbarger in the House.
Mifepristone has quickly become the most common method for ending the life of an unborn baby. The fatal drug, which ends a baby’s life by cutting it off from nutrients needed to survive, has largely fueled the nationwide increase in abortion. Abortionists and leftist activists, protected by so-called shield-laws, have shipped the drug through the mail bypassing red state laws banning medication abortions.
Data released in December by the pro-abortion Society of Family Planning revealed that the number of monthly abortions continued to increase in 2025 from 2024, which was itself an increase from 2023.
Pro-life advocates including Hawley have called for the Trump administration to repeal Biden-era regulations that allowed the drug to be shipped through the mail without an in-person doctor’s visit.
The Food and Drug Administration has said that it is conducting a safety study of mifepristone and has kept Biden-era regulations in place that allow the fatal drug to be sent through the mail with no in-person doctor visits.
Last month, Hawley told The Daily Wire that he thought it was time for Congress to get involved in the abortion fight.
“I think Congress needs to be involved. Congress shouldn’t be a spectator and just outsource this to other people. I think it’s time for Congress to get involved,” he said.
Those comments came after he attended a close-door briefing with FDA Administrator Marty Makary to discuss the regulation of mifepristone. He said he thought the safety study was a “dead end.”
