Abortion Pill Reversal is saving lives in Kentucky even as chemical abortion pill purveyors peddle the drugs in the state where abortion is illegal.
In a September 6 Kentucky Today article on a campaign to push the pills in ads at more than 80 gas stations in the state, a pregnancy center employee spoke about a client who had visited the center recently seeking a way to save her unborn child after starting a chemical abortion.
The account of the pregnancy help staff member and that of a physician with the Abortion Pill Rescue Network were a testament to the regret that women often feel after starting a chemical abortion, and the second chance at life for their unborn child available through Abortion Pill Reversal (APR).
The distressed mother had said that she and her husband panicked following her taking mifepristone at an out-of-state abortion facility, and she cried as they made their way home and on into the night. Her husband searched for ways to reverse the effects of the first abortion pill, and the couple was referred to the pregnancy center, where the medical director prescribes the APR to women who wish to continue their pregnancies.
"The mom cried her entire visit in regret," the employee said.
She then “cried with tears of joy when seeing the progesterone she began taking had spared her baby's life. She didn't know how she would have lived with herself had the abortion been completed."
The pregnancy center has seen five women in just the past year who were seeking to stop the effects of mifepristone, according to the article, with three successful reversals.
"It speaks to the reality of regret," the pregnancy help employee said.
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Chemical abortion is the most common form of abortion in the U.S., with chemical abortions making up most of all U.S. abortions.
A chemical abortion has two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone works by blocking progesterone, the natural hormone in a pregnant woman’s system necessary to sustain pregnancy, starving the unborn child of nutrients. Misoprostol is taken a day or so later, causing the pregnant woman to go into labor and deliver her deceased child.
Chemical abortion drugs have had critical safety standards removed over the last nine years, allowing them to be obtained with little to no medical oversight, and opening the door to greater risk for women, and for others to get the drugs who might use them for abuse or coerced abortion.
Additionally with diverse abortion regulations in different states, abortion providers are selling the drugs across state lines in states where abortion may be illegal, often protected by shield laws and/or pro-abortion public officials intent on protecting the transfer of the drugs.
Abortion has been banned in Kentucky since 2022 when the state’s trigger law went into effect following the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision overturning Roe. v. Wade. The law bans abortion except to “prevent the death or substantial risk of death due to a physical condition, or to prevent the serious, permanent impairment of a life-sustaining organ of a pregnant woman.”
The Kentucky Today article detailed how a third-party abortion pill provision group promoted chemical abortion pills on gas pumps in locations such as Paducah, Owensboro, Manchester, and Lawrenceburg, directing buyers to online pill brokers.
Pregnancy help providers in Kentucky discussed how with the abortion pill transactions taking place in the mail people mistakenly think abortions are not occurring there, and also that the easy access to the pills is dangerous.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office said the office was aware of the abortion pill ads and was reviewing the situation, and a pro-life state lawmaker pledged to continue to fight for pro-life legislation.
Pregnancy help centers in the article, including a medical director who prescribes the life-affirming Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) protocol, shared how APR is countering chemical abortion in Kentucky and saving lives.
APR is an updated application of a treatment sued for decades to prevent miscarriage. It consists of prescribing bioidentical progesterone to counter the effects of mifepristone. If a woman takes mifepristone and experiences regret it may be possible to save er baby’s life through APR. The sooner the woman starts the protocol, the better the chance of success. Reversals have occurred as long as 72 hours after the mifepristone was taken but results are best within 24 hours.
Thousands of lives have been saved through Abortion Pill Reversal, statistics show that to date more than 7,000 lives have been saved through APR and counting.
Tweet This: Thousands of lives have been saved through APR, statistics show that to date more than 7,000 lives have been saved through APR and counting.
APR is administered by the Abortion Pill Rescue Network, which includes nearly 1,500 healthcare professionals, pregnancy centers, and hospitals.
All major studies show that using progesterone to counteract an in-progress chemical abortion (Abortion Pill Reversal) can be effective.
A 2018 peer-reviewed study showed positive results, including that 64%-68% of the pregnancies were saved through APR, there was no increase in birth defects, and there was a lower preterm delivery rate than the general population.
More than 200 women call the APRN each month and start Abortion Pill Reversal, equating to six reversal starts a day.
Kentucky has 13 APR healthcare professionals and clinics in the APRN, and there has been a 46% increase in reversal starts there since 2019.
Dr. Jonathan Abbott, a board-certified OB/GYN in Hopkinsville, Ky., and medical adviser for the APRN, spoke with Kentucky Today about the “huge medical red flags” with ease of access for chemical abortion pills and the minimizing of risk with the abortion drug ads. He noted that in his experience mifepristone is not nearly as safe as it is marketed.
A study from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) released in April showed that the abortion pill is 22 times more dangerous than previously recognized in FDA data.
Abbott also discussed APR in the article.
In prescribing APR, "we're basically trying to help her body compete with that medicine so that there's more progesterone around then there is medicine available so that it still gets to those receptors to help the pregnancy continue to grow," Abbott said.
Whether a woman contacts a pregnancy center directly seeking assistance or comes in through the APRN hotline, Abbot speaks directly with her to explain the APR protocol, along with the importance of follow up care, and he provides his contact information should she experience complications or has questions.
Prior to a progesterone prescription being called in, the woman has an ultrasound at his clinic or one of the pregnancy help centers he works with to confirm the gestational age and rule out ectopic the pregnancy.
The care follows the baby’s growth and allows for early intervention should the mother miscarry.
Abbott said, "About 75 percent of the time babies make it, as long as they start the protocol within that first 24 hours after taking the mifepristone."
More information about Abortion Pill Reversal is available HERE.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News. Heartbeat is currently the subject of two lawsuits brought by state AGs concerning sharing information about Abortion Pill Reversal.
