washingtonstand.com
2026-06-19
These days, it's hard to go a few weeks without bumping into another horrifying story about a man drugging his pregnant girlfriend, wife, or daughter with the abortion drug. But as disturbing as those headlines have been, coercion doesn't always take the form of an angry man. Sometimes, it's a misleading abortion doctor or the impatient Planned Parenthood worker who refuses to tell the truth about mifepristone or a woman's options. That kind of poisoning -- of the mind and heart -- can be just as dangerous.
"I am the generation," Elizabeth Gillette said, "that believed the lie that chemical abortion is safe, easy, and effective. But I didn't know that when I became pregnant in my early 20s. The coercion from Planned Parenthood started the moment I called them to make an appointment," she recalled. "I told them that I wanted an appointment because I wanted help, and I wanted answers, and I needed to understand what my options were. And they told me, 'When women call our office, it's because they've already made up their mind. And so, by you calling us, we know that you actually do want an abortion.'"
As conflicted as she was, Elizabeth made the appointment -- but doubt started creeping in the minute she arrived at the office. When her boyfriend slid the $800 fee under the window, she remembers putting her hand on the money and talking to the Planned Parenthood staffer. "'If I change my mind, can I have a refund?'" she asked. And she was essentially told that if you don't go through with it after talking to the doctor and having an ultrasound, "I guess we can give you a couple of dollars back.'"