Rosalie Markezich loved working with children at her daycare job.^1,2 According to documents uploaded by Louisiana Right to Life, she looked at the positive result of her pregnancy test and smiled. However, she was apprehensive about her boyfriend’s reaction. Should she tell him? “I decided he had the right to know,” she recalled.

He reacted excitedly, wanting to move in together, proclaiming that bringing up their child would be “legendary!”

Then it was like a switch flipped. He ordered abortion pills sent through the mail and delivered to Rosalie’s home.

They saw each other after he sent her the abortifacients and went for a drive. He was adamant: she must abort! She was adamant: No!

He parked, then shouted. He had a criminal record. She had been victimized by domestic violence. Terrified, she agreed to take the abortifacients. However, she planned to vomit when alone.

When she agreed to abort, he drove to the home he shared with his parents. There she took both pills at the same time, hoping “taking them simultaneously might stop them from working.”

We must interrupt our story to describe how abortion pills work. They abort a pregnancy through 12 weeks. Two pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, are used. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone from sustaining the pregnancy; misoprostol triggers expulsion. Mifepristone is taken 24 to 48 hours before misoprostol.^3,4

Back to Rosalie. As her boyfriend started to drive Rosalie home, she suffered a panic attack.^5,6 He turned the car around and returned to his house. There Rosalie raced to a restroom to vomit.

Nothing came up.

Instead, in about ten minutes, blood gushed from her vagina.

The next morning, her boyfriend remained angry even though the abortion was complete. Apparently attempting to placate Rosalie, his mother offered Rosalie a stuffed animal. Rosalie refused the consolation prize.

Returning to work on Monday, the children reminded her of her loss. “It was so hard being there knowing that I would never hold the hand of my own child,” she remembered.

Rosalie testified on July 17, 2025 in an action by the state of Louisiana v. the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moving that the FDA not legally permit the obtaining of abortion drugs through mail. “Had the FDA required an in-person visit with a doctor before dispensing the drugs, my boyfriend would never have been able to obtain the drugs that he made me take,” she asserted.

Other women have been forced to take abortion pills. Some crimes were committed before the June 2022 Dobbs decision. We do not always know how abusers acquired the pills. However, it seems obvious the availability of abortion pills via mail enables.

A woman was three months pregnant and, in the words of one reporter in a Heritage Foundation commentary, “preparing a life plan” as loved ones bestowed baby clothes on her. Sleeping soundly, she awoke the night of December 10, 2019 to see ex-boyfriend Jagmeet Sandhu pointing a gun at her.^7,8 (She had ended their relationship three weeks before due to his pressure to abort.) Forced at gunpoint to take abortion pills, the woman aborted.

At her request, a victim advocate read a statement she had written at his August 2022 court sentencing: “I never even got the chance to listen to the heartbeat. … Nothing will ever bring back what was taken from me.”

Sandhu told investigators his was a traditional Indian family so a relationship with the “non-Indian” woman was unworkable.

A judge sentenced Sandhu to a year in jail, three years’ probation, 100 hours community service, and a year-long domestic violence program.

In 2022, according to Heritage Foundation commentary and NBC News, the marriage of Houston attorney Mason and wife Catherine Herring was troubled enough that they separated. The couple, who had been married for eleven years and had two children, agreed to couples counseling.^9,10 During a March 2022 counseling session, Catherine told Mason she was pregnant. She later recalled his reaction as “negative.”

Their counselor suggested they move back in together. They did.

Catherine Herring would inform authorities that Mason expressed concern about his pregnant wife’s water intake. She asserted that, on March 17, 2022, Mason brought her breakfast with water; he refused to leave until she finished the water. Catherine was puzzled by the water’s cloudy appearance. Mason speculated the cup or pipes were impure.

Suddenly Catherine suffered stomach cramps, then bleeding from her vagina She rushed to an emergency room. She recovered and — to her relief — did not miscarry!

However, suspicions were aroused. Was Mason trying to poison her? To force an abortion? She secretly set up cameras around their home. Later, she told investigators she believed Mason had handed her beverages spiked with abortion pills six times that she had not drank.

In a police complaint, Catherine described a video showing Mason putting a substance in a beverage meant for her, then tossing trash from his car. She stated she examined the trash — and found a misoprostol package.

Catherine Herring gave birth prematurely to a daughter with developmental delays — possibly the result of harm by abortion medications.

Mason Herring was charged with felony assault to induce abortion. By plea agreement, he pled guilty to injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail and 10 years’ probation. He was forbidden from contacting Catherine or the daughter born despite his efforts.

“I do not believe that 180 days is justice for attempting to kill your child seven separate times,” Catherine complained.

According to a NBC Boston report, a woman started dating Robert Kawada after they met on a dating app in January 2024.¹¹ Kawada ended the relationship in March. The woman realized she was pregnant and informed him. Oddly, no report this writer read indicates Kawada suggested abortion. However, they state the 43-year-old is alleged to have used a female identity and ordered mifepristone and misoprostol online which were mailed to him.

Kawada falsely told the woman he was offering her vitamins and iron pills. Kawada’s father is an obstetrician-gynecologist; he is alleged to have used this to indicate to the ex-girlfriend that he knew it was especially important for pregnant women to take iron supplements and vitamins. Additionally, authorities allege Kawada enlisted a female accomplice to pretend to be a nurse, call the woman, and claim recent tests showed she was deficient in iron.

The pregnant woman took the offered pills … only to have her pregnancy end almost immediately. When she talked to investigating officers, she described what a pill Kawada gave her looked like. Her description was consistent with an abortion pill.

Kawada was indicted in November 2024 with poisoning, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a pregnant person, and assault and battery on a household or family member. As indicated in a Court TV report, the poisoning charge was later dismissed because the pills were not mixed with other medicines or with food or beverages as required by statute for poisoning. The other charges remain as of this writing.¹²

Abusers taking advantage of the ease with which abortion pills can be acquired to force abortions on unwilling females are not necessarily male. LifeNews.com reports that in 2023, Haley Raborn, a 21-year-old Florida resident, was arrested for plotting to force abortion pills on an unwilling pregnant woman.¹³ The alleged victim was 11 weeks along when she was informed by her ex-fiancé, who had impregnated her, of the plot. Raborn contacted the man, with whom she had previously had a romance, and asked him to slip the abortion pills to the woman without her knowledge. She offered him Air pods as payment! The man provided Snapchat messages to deputies about the plans for the crime and turned over the abortion pills to them. Detectives who met with Raborn say she confessed to the plot. Raborn said she got the abortifacients from an online source and they were mailed to her.

How many cases are never known to the public? Domestic violence victims often keep things quiet so it is likely women have been threatened into aborting without the crime ever being reported. Perhaps even more troublingly, how many cases of forced abortions are not even known to the victims? The pregnant female never realizes she has been slipped abortion pills and believes she has had a miscarriage, mourning the loss — and perhaps even continuing to live with the person who caused it.

It is hard to imagine anything more central to “women’s rights” than that of pregnant women who want to have babies to do so free of violence, threats, or trickery. Yet the easy availability of abortion pills threatens this most fundamental of specifically female freedoms. As Rosalie Markezich testified, requiring in-person doctor’s visits to make these pills available would safeguard against their use by abusers against unwilling pregnant women.

Requiring such visits might also safeguard female health, a topic explored in Part 2 of this article and to be published soon.

References:

1. “What Is Forced Abortion?” Louisiana Right to Life. https://prolifelouisiana.org/forcedabortion.

2. The State of Louisiana by and through its Attorney General Liz Murrill, and Rosalie Markezich v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. United States District Court Western District of Louisiana Lafayette Division. July 17, 2025. https://prolifelouisiana.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Markezich-Declaration-2.pdf.

3. “Medical Abortion.” Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21899-medical-abortion.

4. “Medication Abortion: Your Questions Answered.” Yale Medicine. https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/medication-abortion-your-questions-answered.

5. “What Is Forced Abortion?” Louisiana Right to Life. https://prolifelouisiana.org/forcedabortion.

6. The State of Louisiana by and through its Attorney General, Liz Murrill and Rosalie Markezich v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. United States District Court Western District of Louisiana Lafayette Division. July 17, 2025. https://prolifelouisiana.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Markezich-Declaration-2.pdf.

7. Israel, Melanie. “Abortion Pills, Coercion, and Abuse.” The Heritage Foundation. Mar. 10, 2026. https://www.heritage.org/life/commentary/abortion-pills-coercion-and-abuse.

8. Kotowski, Jason. “‘I never even got the chance to listen to the heartbeat;’ Victim statement read at sentencing in forced miscarriage case.” KGET.com. Sept. 1, 2022. https://www.kget.com/news/crime-watch/jagmeet-sandhu-forced-miscarriage-manslaughter-sala-bakersfield-sentencing/.

9. Israel, Melanie. “Abortion Pills, Coercion, and Abuse.” The Heritage Foundation. Mar. 10, 2026. https://www.heritage.org/life/commentary/abortion-pills-coercion-and-abuse.

10. Burke, Minyvonne. “Texas attorney who poisoned pregnant wife with abortion medication sentence to 180 days in jail.” NBC News. Feb. 9, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-attorney-poisoned-pregnant-wife-abortion-medication-sentenced-18-rcna138065.

11. Fortier, Marc. “Mass. man indicted for tricking ex into taking medication to end her pregnancy.” NBC Boston. Nov. 15, 2024. https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/mass-man-indicted-for-tricking-ex-into-taking-medication-to-end-her-pregnancy/3552554/.

12. Silver, Lauren. “Man accused of poisoning pregnant woman gets one charge dismissed.” Court TV. March 30, 2026. https://www.courttv.com/news/man-accused-of-poisoning-pregnant-woman-gets-charge-dismissed/.

13. Bilger, Micaiah. “Woman Arrested for Trying to Use Abortion Pills to Kill Another Woman’s Baby.” LifeNews.com. June 2, 2023. https://www.lifenews.com/2023/06/02/woman-arrested-for-trying-to-use-abortion-pills-to-kill-another-womans-unborn-baby/.