Mason Herring, a Texas attorney, pleaded guilty in 2024 to poisoning his estranged wife, Catherine. He did so by repeatedly spiking her water with the abortion pill after learning she was pregnant with their third child, when he was planning to leave her.
What is commonly referred to as the “abortion pill” is really a two-step pill process. The first pill is mifepristone, which blocks progesterone and separates the fetus from the lining of the uterus. The second pill, misoprostol, mimics early labor to expel the fetus.
Digging in the trash, Catherine Herring found packaging for the second pill, misoprostol, that her then-husband was secretly giving to her to induce an abortion.
On the “Washington Watch” program, Catherine Herring said she shares her horrific experience because she believes other women are victims, too. The public’s easy access to the abortion pill, she reasons, means there are other men obtaining it because they don’t want to be a father.
“The women who speak out are so incredibly brave,” she said. “In the midst of their grief and heartbreak, they are telling the truth about what’s going on.”
Law enforcement authorities believe Mason Herring obtained the abortion pills from Mexico.
Adding more details to that allegation, the ex-wife told “Washington Watch” her ex-husband likely used an accomplice in El Paso to obtain them from Mexico. They were then mailed from El Paso to their home in Houston.
Abortion pill popular after Dobbs
Use of the abortion pill has skyrocketed after the Dobbs decision rolled back abortion access in many states. Abortion supporters have celebrated its mail-order availability for skirting state-level abortion laws.
Despite the obvious danger of the abortion pill, the most radical abortion supporters publicly claim it is safer than Tylenol.
Now that she knows firsthand how the abortion pill affects a woman’s body, Herring told “Washington Watch” she is warning other women who don’t know the side effects of a pill they can now get through the mail.
“My hope is that the FDA would reinstate the REMS regulations,” Herring said, referring to the previous FDA safety protocol that required an in-person doctor’s visit for a prescription. That rule was dropped in 2021.
“Women should not be left alone in their homes, in their apartments, in their dorm rooms, to take this dangerous drug,” she warned. "I can't even begin to tell you how sick I was."
