Stacy Long
AFA Journal staff writer
April 2017 – Angela swallowed a single pill and left the Planned Parenthood building. By the time she got back into her car, she was crying. When she got home, she immediately Googled “abortion pill reversal.” She could not believe what she found.
“There was hope and a procedure that could possibly save my baby’s life,” she said. “I did not hesitate and immediately called the hotline. They were quick to connect me to a local clinic that could help. I received a call from Alycia at Obria Medical Clinics within an hour. Within 30 minutes I had the progesterone I needed to reverse the effects [of the abortion pill].”
Her healthy baby Zoey was born in late November 2016.
Chemical scourge
The pill that Angela and Zoey were rescued from was a dose of mifepristone, also known as mifeprex, the abortion pill, or RU-486.
“Mifepristone blocks the action of progesterone in a woman’s body,” explained Donna Harrison, executive director of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “Progesterone is the hormone a woman’s ovary makes that allows her to carry a pregnancy. Without progesterone, the embryo dies.”
This process of killing a child within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy is commonly called chemical abortion and includes a second drug called misoprostol taken a few days later to induce contractions and expel the baby’s body.
The FDA approved the use of mifepristone for chemical abortions in 2000. Today, “pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute estimates chemical abortions account for almost one of four of all abortions – a substantial increase from 2001, when chemical abortions accounted for just 6% of all abortions,” Denise Burke, vice president of legal affairs for Americans United for Life, told AFA Journal.
Swift and silent
The territory of chemical abortion is ever expanding. Since 2008, some abortion centers that do not have a licensed abortionist in the building have used what is described as webcam abortion: a woman consults with an abortionist in a live video call over the Internet, receives the dose of mifepristone at the clinic, and takes the misoprostol later at home.
In 2016, the FDA began clinical trials in four states allowing women who have an ultrasound confirming pregnancy to receive abortion drugs by mail, completing a consultation on their computer or mobile device. They can take the two pills to kill and expel the baby without ever leaving home.
Many women choose to take the two pills at the beginning and end of a weekend so they can be back at work on Monday morning, Kathleen Eaton Bravo of Obria Medical Clinics in California has found.
“These girls don’t even have to go to a clinic anymore,” she told AFAJ. “Today, abortion starts on the smartphone. A young girl can be in her bedroom at any time of night, take a pregnancy test, realize she is pregnant, go on her smartphone, and in 15 seconds be connected to an abortion provider who is going to ship her the abortion pill.”
Mail order abortion shifts the frontline of efforts to rescue women and children from abortion.
“Right now, 40% of abortions here in California are RU-486,” Bravo said. “Planned Parenthood’s strategic goal is to make 75% of their abortions RU-486. And if those young women aren’t going to Planned Parenthood clinics, they aren’t going to be coming into our pro-life clinics. They’re aborting in their bedrooms and flushing the baby down the toilet. That is the reality of abortion today.”
Natural antidote
However, the rampage of RU-486 is not a death knell for pro-life efforts, as Angela can confirm. Pro-life medical professionals are busy working to save lives, even after the abortion pill.
George Delgado with Culture of Life Family Services in California pioneered use of the treatment that saved baby Zoey. He found that giving doses of progesterone to women within 72 hours of taking the abortion pill and then throughout the first trimester may counter the effects of mifepristone. Abortion pill reversal has had a 50-60% success rate, and Delgado has seen 225 women who had taken the abortion pill deliver their babies, with another 157 still successfully carrying. Abortionpillreversal.com states that there is no evidence of birth defects caused by either mifepristone or progesterone.
“Natural progesterone has been used for 50 years in women who are at risk of miscarriage, and in women who have undergone IVF treatments,” AAPLOG’s Harrison said. “Giving natural progesterone to reverse the effects of mifepristone is a simple application of principles used in the treatment of poisonings. Mifepristone abortions are a kind of poisoning, and the antidote is natural progesterone. ”
Breaking the silence
The drawback is that few people realize abortion pill reversal is an option. When abortionists give the abortion drug, they routinely lie, telling women there is no turning back, the abortion cannot be stopped. But pro-life advocates are now using the same platforms abortionists have exploited – Internet and telemedicine* – in order to intercept the women being sold abortion.
“For a woman who quickly regrets her choice to use mifepristone and wishes to continue her pregnancy, knowledge of this potential reversal option could mean the difference between life and death for her baby,” AUL’s Burke said.
As with Angela, who rushed to a frantic Internet search as soon as she regretted taking the abortion pill, web listings, ads, and 24/7 emergency hotlines can quickly steer women to a different outcome. And telemedicine can bring women life-saving progesterone treatments as quickly as the abortion market can supply deadly drugs.
“We can drop this telemedicine platform into any zip code in the country,” Bravo explained. “We can really start impacting abortion numbers and reach girls in their homes at any time of night or day.”
Furthermore, pro-lifers are not content with leaving it to women to do the homework to discover that the abortion pill can be reversed. Lawmakers in Arizona, Arkansas, and South Dakota have already passed laws requiring that women be told that the effects of the chemical abortion drug can be reversed, and AUL has a model for such legislation.
“AUL has drafted informed consent language that requires abortion providers to inform a woman prior to a chemical abortion that she may be able to change her mind and reverse the effects of mifepristone, but that time is of the essence,” Burke described.
Across the board, lawmakers, pregnancy centers, medical professionals, and pro-life citizens have the opportunity to make a footprint in standing for life. New technologies have brought the battleground between life and death closer to home. The landscape in which women can be reached and influenced is more vast, more fast-paced, and more easily accessible. Fortunately, danger is matched with hope and help that occupy the same ground. 
*telemedicine – use of video, telephone, and Internet services to connect patients with physicians for medical diagnoses and prescriptions
TAKE ACTION
▶ Find out if your state is one of 19 states with a ban on webcam abortion and push for stricter regulations.
▶ Encourage your legislators to pass an Abortion Pill Reversal Information Act.
▶ Support pregnancy centers and health care providers in helping women reverse the effects of the abortion pill.
abortionpillreversal.com
619-577-0997
aul.org
202-289-1478
obria.org
800-771-5089
aaplog.org
202-230-0997
