Catholic Physicians face Moral Debates in the rise of Mifepristone and gender-affirming surgeries

As states become battlegrounds for difficult medical decisions regarding chemical abortions and gender-affirming surgeries, Solidarity President and Co-Founder Chris Faddis joins Molly Smith on From The Median to discuss these difficult topics.

Interview Audio

Interview Text

Announcer (00:00):

The following program is sponsored by Cleveland Right to Life and is responsible for its content. Welcome to From the Median, a daily report from the frontline of the Pro-Life movement, discussing two worldviews that are driving our culture in opposite directions. From the median asks, which side of the road are you on? What direction do you want our culture to go? Tune in as we plan the route that takes us back to the Culture of life. And now your host Molly Smith.

Molly Smith (00:29):

Good evening and welcome to From the Median where we are concerned with the middle ground, not just to understand both sides of an argument, but also to awaken the consciences of those who are neutral or indifferent to this, the greatest civil rights movement of all times, the Pro-Life Movement. Listeners, as always, thank you for joining us. Just wonderful to have you with us. And remember, again, please spread the word about our podcasting so that we can get this, all the incredible information that we’re able to bring to you, spread it far and wide around. So we are, as I keep telling you all, we are seeing a huge uptick in our podcasting, which means that the word about our mission is getting out wider and wider. So please, let’s keep doing that. Our guest right now is Chris Faddis and I’m going to be talking a little bit more.

(01:13):

I’m going to actually just start off with sort of set up the questions here so that we can talk to Chris. Chris’s a regular guest on the show. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to Solidarity HealthShare of whom he is the co-founder and CEO of the Health Share Organization. And we’ve had a wonderful relationship with Solidarity and hope that we can continue with that. And of course, we are always very honored when we have an organization such as Solidarity HealthShare to notice who we are and to stand beside us. So without further ado, Chris, welcome to the program.

Chris Faddis (01:46):

Thanks for having me, Molly. It’s great to talk to you again.

Molly Smith (01:48):

The Supreme Court is again weighing in onto the abortion controversy. The high court has temporarily blocked lower court orders that would’ve limited access to the abortion drug Mifepristone. And of course, we all know that that is what most of the abortions now, certainly in Ohio, more than 50% of abortions take place as a result of using chemical abortions. So the court is for now preserving the pills of availability. While Justice has weighed the Biden Administration’s emergency request to leave the current FDA approval in place, according to the Wall Street Journal, anti-abortion, plaintiffs are challenging the FDA’s 2000 approval of Mifepristone and other policies that relax the stringent conditions for the drug distributions. There are major concerns over the side effects of chemical abortion drugs. So Chris, you are here today to talk with us about what does this mean. Mifepristone is the latest aftershock of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision rescinding abortion rights in overturning Roe v. Wade, where the Supreme Court rightfully found that the authority rather to regulate abortion, must be returned to the state. What did the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals attempt to do in this ruling? Can you help us understand that?

Chris Faddis (03:04):

Yeah. Essentially what they did is first off, they fully in that Fifth Circuit decision, so roll back the access to Mifepristone which limited use to women for pregnant for seven weeks or fewer weeks. And that was the original approval for Mifepristone was up to seven weeks or fewer. And through the sort of Covid regulation changes and all these emergency authority that the federal government had, they extended that out to 10 weeks, including interstate access as well. And being able to ship the prescriptions, mail them, the federal government even challenged, and several states made the case they were going to let the drugs be shipped into states that abortion was illegal. And so what the Fifth Circuit did is they actually rolled it back to the original FDA approval. So seven weeks. It is also not allowing for interstate to be mailed and all of that.

(04:02):

But the Supreme Court gave us stay on that while they gave the government the chance to appeal. And that’s a normal action. That’s not surprising. But essentially what we have right now is finally the most substantial challenge to the flawed FDA approval of Mifepristone from all the way back to 2000. And there’s a really good shot here, particularly because the FDA’s approval was flawed because there was a lot of scientific issues, a lot of doctors have had issues with it. And because there are so many complications that are ignored, there’s a good opportunity here that perhaps the court will see in the favor of the plaintiffs, which is the Alliance of Hippocratic Medicine, which is a fantastic organization of doctors who filed this lawsuit.

Molly Smith (04:52):

If we are successful in getting the Supreme Court to agree that the Biden administration has overstepped the mark here, would there be a possibility that it would be banned altogether or are we just going to go back to the seven weeks?

Chris Faddis (05:09):

Well, the initial court ruling out of Texas was a complete ban and a complete rollback to pre 2000, which was, that Mifepristone was not allowed for usage. The Fifth Circuit reinstated the original approval of the FDA. And so the court really has to, Supreme Court now has to decide not only if they’re going to uphold the Fifth Circuit’s rolling back to seven weeks, but if they’re going to uphold the original decision of completely banning Mifepristone. So there is a possibility that this could become a complete and total ban. And as you and I are talking, we’re anxiously awaiting it. It’s very possible we’ll have a decision in the coming day or two. So we’re waiting to see what the court will decide. But the lawsuit was brought particularly because of concerns about how it was approved. It was filed in November by a group of doctors with, like I said, the Alliance of Hippocratic Medicine.

(06:04):

And they’re alleging that the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone was flawed and puts women at risk due to unresearched complications. And now we have 23 years of data to prove those complications. And so there’s a lot to say here that perhaps, and I don’t know how often this happens that a court could challenge an FDA approval, but we are seeing political means to get FDA approvals happening all over the place. So I think this is an important check and balance here that if we don’t feel that the FDA is doing their job to protect the public, for doctors to come out and say, look, we’ve seen the complications, we’ve seen the proof that the complications are there and that the FDA didn’t do their job in protecting the public, the court could absolutely completely rule in favor of banning the drug. And certainly the FDA could go back to the drawing board, but at least it would be banned for now.

Molly Smith (06:57):

Yeah, this would be a huge positive for all of us. Your organization is very much focused on upholding moral teaching of the Catholic church. I know you and I have talked about chemical abortions before. We’ve talked about the fact that the Biden administration, the Obama administration as well also try to push the Catholic hospitals into issuing these and providing these chemical abortions and doing things like this and providing contraception, all that kind of stuff. Do you see that the Catholic church might get involved in this as well?

Chris Faddis (07:38):

Yeah, I mean, I don’t know exactly where the church would have grounds for this suit, but I know they’re certainly supportive. Obviously, I think most of our bishops and the church in general is supportive. This lawsuit is specifically being brought by doctors because of the complications and the lack of research founded. But I wouldn’t be surprised. And ultimately what the government’s trying to do right now is enforce and force this usage of Mifepristone across the country, including states who buy their own state rights, have banned abortion. They’re trying to get these abortion pills into those states. And so I think they’re not going to stop fighting for that. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t try to enforce something where one thing we’re seeing Molly is in Colorado, Colorado just had the first state law banning the abortion pill reversal, which basically says, Hey, if a woman takes the abortion pill protocol, the Mifepristone which is a two-part medication that you take over a couple of days, if a woman during that time in between says, wait a minute, what am I doing?

(08:44):

I want to have this baby. The abortion pill reversal, which was developed by heroes of mine like Dr. George Delgado and others, allows for a really evidence-based way to reverse the effect of the drug. One of the first things that Mifepristone does is it restricts the progesterone available to the baby. And so you basically, they give them progesterone and some other things, and it helps to reverse the abortion pill. The state of Colorado just issued a law banning abortion pill reversal. Right. Wow. So we know that the agenda here is going to continue to drive towards this. Now, one clinic in Colorado, a wonderful clinic, Bella Natural Women’s Center, Bella has filed a lawsuit against that law and it already got an injunction, at least for a time on that law. So that’s good. But we know this is going to keep coming, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the church doesn’t have to stand up and fight on this matter.

Molly Smith (09:41):

Yeah, absolutely. At least submit amicus briefs, et cetera, do really get involved in this. It’s going to be very, very interesting to watch it. And as you say, we are, as perhaps even before we are able to air this particular interview with you, Chris, there may be a decision that’s come down from the court, but we will wait for that. And then of course there’ll be other things. There’ll be repercussions that’ll go on and on and on. So we will be following this on a regular basis just to see where we’re all at. And of course, the bottom line is we have to stop these chemical abortions because certainly in Ohio, these abortion is, we are hoping that the heartbeat bill will take effect very shortly and that we will be able to defeat our ballot initiative here, the Pro-Abortion Ballot Initiative, ACLU, driving it behind it to make abortion legal, not illegal, but legal up until the moment of birth. So we are hoping that all of this is going to really resonate here in Ohio. Mifepristone is the aftershock of, as we said, of Roe v. Wade. But when we see organizations like so many different institutions and Charlotte Lozier Institute, which advises pro-life organizations with medical research, they are saying that they’ve got evidence, Chris, they’ve got evidence of widespread use of the abortion pill over the past 20 years. They’ve also shown that there is a lot of evidence as well of complications. Isn’t this right? I mean, the complications of this pill is just unbelievable.

Chris Faddis (11:27):

Yeah. In fact, this is something that’s very interesting because this data that Charlotte Lozier and other groups have put together is with knowing the fact that complications of the abortion pill are wildly under-reported. There are many instances of emergency room visits that are on record where people have had complications that are not being reported to the reporting site by the FDA, which is one of the measures we have as consumers to be able to report issues. And anyone can do it, but it’s normally done by a doctor or hospital. Right? And even with that, under reporting this data shows that there is a real issue here. And so there’s been no randomized trials investigating the mid to longer term complications of Mifepristone. This is coming from Charlotte Lozier. The FDA has shown its lack of interest in complications under its revised regulation. The manufacturer only needs to report any deaths brought to their attention.

(12:25):

So on almost any other drug you can imagine, they have to report all adverse events at certain levels, not headaches and cramping, but anything that requires medical attention. But Mifepristone, they only have to report deaths. And the FDA’s continued. The later abortions involve higher complication rates. They’ve decided no longer had any interest in tracking those complications. And research shows the physical risks are significant. The of abortions in Finland, 20% Molly of women undergoing Mifepristone induced abortions experience, adverse events including 50% hemorrhage, 6% surgical intervention, and nine deaths per 100,000. Right? This is a number that has taken other medical interventions off the market, nine deaths and 100,000. And we are going to not even report this. I mean, this is a real issue. Another study from all Medicaid funded abortions from 1999 to 2015. So this is a very wide swath of Medicaid funded abortions revealed that 35% of women undergoing Mifepristone induced abortion required emergency room treatment within 30 days of their abortions.

(13:36):

So for them, for this to not even be something that the FDA takes a look at, to not even have hearings, to not even have require further testing, to not even put a pause on the medication. If you remember, even with the COVID vaccinations, which were, we had questions about how the oversight of that. (Yeah, no kidding.) When there was an increase in heart conditions and things, what happened? The FDA put Johnson and Johnson on hold, right? These things are supposed to happen. That is why they are there to regulate these drug manufacturers. And we’re only reporting deaths. And yet you just heard the level of complications, the level of hemorrhaging, 15% of women in Finland doing Mifepristone hemorrhage, and that’s not a reported event at our FDA.

Molly Smith (14:20):

This is absolutely atrocious, absolutely atrocious. Chris. And this is why I think I was just reading just before we came on the air. First, we started interviewing here about the fact that the trust in the medical institutions and medical systems has just plummeted from the general population. And I’m not surprised when you look at this kind of stuff happening. I mean, we’ve come through the Covid thing where we were seeing all kinds of silliness going on with regards to reporting and all that kind of stuff. And then you hear this that’s going the way. They are just not even reporting the fact that you’re going into the hospital. Goodness gracious me. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. Another controversial topic involves the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, recent new guidelines for Catholic hospitals when providing gender transition care. You mentioned earlier on Colorado. I just read today about the fact that Colorado has sort of opened up the Colorado.

(15:20):

They’ve just passed, signed into law three laws that allows Colorado to be used almost like as a tourism state for transgender surgeries. I mean, this is unbelievable. But the 14 page doctrinal note titled, “Moral Limits to the Technological Manipulation of the Human Body by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops “sets guidelines to change for changing a person’s sex, specifically among young people. The document says Catholic hospitals must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or to take part in the development of such procedures. What does this mean for Catholic health healthcare?

Chris Faddis (16:05):

Well, the statements that been very significant, Molly and important, I think it was important for the Bishops to remind the hospitals. I think a lot of people were wondering what are they going to do? I mean, because this is a moment of truth in a sense, right? If the Biden administration is successful and enforcing these rules, this is a moment where folks have to make a decision. What line am I going to be on? Am I going to keep my business? Am I going to keep my hospital but take away the Catholicity, or am I going to practice the way that I’m called to practice and do the thing, the heroic thing I’m going to need to do? And the Bishops made it clear that that Catholic healthcare is not in any anyway to give in to these Biden measures. And so essentially, the largest group of Catholic health hospitals is the Catholic Health Association, which has 600 hospitals, 600, 1600 long-term, another healthcare facilities, more than one in seven US hospital patients has cared for in a Catholic facility.

(17:03):

So this is a big deal. This is a moment of truth. Are we going to continue offering Catholic healthcare? And the bishops have made it clear, which it wasn’t that it wasn’t clear, but they’ve reminded us, right? This is what Catholic healthcare is. Certainly does that mean that somebody who comes in the door with transgender, whatever that says, they’re transgender that identifies that way, whatever it is, that we don’t treat them, of course we treat them, but we will not do these life-altering procedures. We will not participate in these hormone therapies and all of these other things that are harming their long-term health and actually causing more mental health issues down the long run. So this is a big deal. It’s going to come to a head, I’m sure in the courts before anything. The question will be how many of the Catholic and not just Catholic hospitals, Christian hospitals, will have to make this decision as well. How many of these hospitals will maintain their Catholic or Christian ethos, their identity serve people from a Catholic anthropology, or how many of them will decide, you know what? We’re going to go ahead and lose the Catholic designation so we can continue serving and keep our business,

Molly Smith (18:14):

Paticipating, yes.

Chris Faddis (18:15):

It’ll be interesting to see, Molly, this is a big deal, and it was a very important announcement from the Bishops to clarify. Now, the other side of this will be will the Bishops, will they hold the Catholic hospitals to this? Right, exactly. So should a hospital choose to allow these things to happen or try to maybe hide that they’re allowing these things to happen in their ORs, will a bishop have the courage of our Bishop emeritus here in Phoenix, a Bishop Olmstead, and actually strip the Catholic identity of those hospitals? That’ll be the interesting part. I work closely with the Catholic Medical Association and Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and the Association of Pro-Life. We are all fighting for this that we are going to hold true. And so we hope the Catholic Health Association and those hospitals will follow suit.

Molly Smith (19:05):

It’s interesting. I had a guest on just a week or so ago, a woman who has used a pseudonym and we used Lily for her name because she’s been threatened by all kinds because of this whole transgender thing. And she’s been fighting back against, she and a whole group of other parents are fighting back against the transgender mutilation that’s going on here in Ohio. And she actually mentioned the fact that Rainbow Children, Cleveland Clinic, Rainbow Children’s University Hospitals here in our area to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, all of these big hospitals are all participating in this transgender nonsense that’s going on. And the reason being Chris is because there is so much money in it. There’s so much money in it.

Chris Faddis (19:54):

Yes, there’s a lot of money in it. There’s a lot of donor money in it as well. There’s a lot of these massive liberal organizations that are funding projects based on the availability of these services. We are starting to see that and the whole diversity, equity, inclusion policies that people have to have in order to get funding, in order to get grants and all those kinds of things. So the pressure is huge for these organizations and those that are sort of, let’s just call them amoral. They’re neither here nor there. They’re corporate hospitals. They’re essentially choosing what they would choose. They’re serving their shareholders. We could make more money. We’re going to get more funding. We’re going to do those things. But Catholic hospitals have a different call, and certainly not that they shouldn’t make money, they need to be sustainable, but they do have a different call. And so we need to pray for them, pray for the doctors. One of the struggles they’re going to have is not every doctor in a Catholic hospital is of like mind. They’re employing thousands of people, and most of the time they’re not necessarily on the same page. It may be difficult for these hospitals to staff if they’ve got doctors who object to them not providing these services. (Exactly.) So it’s going to be a fight. This is the battle we kind of knew was coming. We need to pray big time for this moment.

Molly Smith (21:13):

Absolutely. So we’ve got about three minutes left. Tell us about Solidarity HealthShare. I always like to end off on that because this of course, is the most amazing way to use our health to fund for our health.

Chris Faddis (21:26):

Yeah. Well, I mean, as you know, Molly, Solidarity is intentionally different. We are serving our members in a way that is different. You still have to access the healthcare system. So we give you the tools to do that. You have a Member ID card, all of that. But ultimately, when you pay your monthly contribution, you know that a majority of those funds are going to share medical needs of other members. And then we’re going to be there to share your medical needs, and we are going to protect you from paying for these kind of services. And we’re also going to protect you from being led to the slaughter by the medical establishment, so to speak. And that’s what we do every day. So you talk about the Mifepristone abortion, we just had to deal with this with a member recently who had done one on her own. We didn’t certainly share into that, but then had complications 30 days later, was trying to get treatment for hemorrhaging for 30 days, Molly, and we had to love her charitably and take care of her while also upholding our guidelines. And that’s what we do as a healthcare ministry that’s faithful to the Catholic teachings and the pro-life ethos that we both espouse.

Molly Smith (22:26):

Absolutely. And we will put up all the information as to how to contact Solidarity Healthshare if you’re interested in, and please do, just go and do your homework. It’s a wonderful organization to be part of. As Chris says, we help each other when we join Solidarity HealthShare. Give us again, just tell us how to get hold of you, Chris, if people want to do that.

Chris Faddis (22:45):

Yeah, definitely. Reach us at 8 4 4 3 1 3 4 9 9 9. Let them know that you heard about us through Molly, by the way, because we love knowing that Molly’s Molly’s promoting us, and our team loves listening to the podcast as well. So 3 1 3 4 9 9 9, or visit us at solidarityhealthshare.org

Molly Smith (23:03):

Org. Perfect. Thank you so much, Chris Faddis, as always, God bless you lots for all that you’re doing and for all of the staff there at Solidarity HealthShare, God bless you. God bless you. Bye-Bye. Don’t go anywhere. I will be back with you right after this very short break with another World-class inspiring guest.

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