Elizabeth and Ben are the grateful parents of Baby Evelyn, their daughter saved by Abortion Pill Reversal.
The couple has previously shared their story of chemical abortion reversal for Heartbeat International’s Babies Go to Congress initiative, and more recently they were able to touch more hearts with their story at a gathering for Heartbeat’s 2025 Annual Pregnancy Help Conference - with Evelyn stealing the show and punctuating their poignant testimony.
Elizabeth and Ben are mindful and remain thankful for the support they have received from numerous quarters since they began seeking to save Evelyn with APR treatment. They take any oportunity to share their story as one of hope, redemption, and life. Still, they are also continually moved by the magnitude of encouragement from the pregnancy help community.
“I am very overwhelmed to be here and see my daughter so celebrated,” Elizabeth said.
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She began by recounting how she and Ben became parents to Baby Evelyn and how Evelyn was saved through Abortion Pill Reversal.
Elizabeth and Ben met at work and had somewhat of an on-again-off-again relationship. There wasn’t a lot of family support when Elizabeth became pregnant, and while Ben was excited, she was scared. He is the father of teenage children from a previous marriage, but this was her first pregnancy, and with all the uncertainty in the situation this was overwhelming for her.
“So, I decided to go forward with an abortion,” Elizabeth said.
“I just wanted someone to tell me I was not alone and that I could do it”
She shared how she was about five weeks pregnant when she first went to Planned Parenthood. Her experience there was upsetting, as she’d previously thought well of the abortion provider based upon its claims of providing comprehensive services and assistance to women.
The staff there resisted showing her the sonogram of Evelyn, she said, telling Elizabeth this was simply a bunch of cells. Elizabeth said she asked to see the ultrasound and was able to make out her baby’s heartbeat. Unsure of whether to proceed, she decided to leave, the Planned Parenthood staff telling her on the way out that if she waited past 10 weeks, she would have to have a surgical abortion.
Elizabeth explained how she had wrestled with the morality of having an abortion and concluded that surgery would be too far.
“So, I decided to go back at nine weeks after much deliberation and uncertainty,” she said.
“I just wanted someone to tell me I was not alone and that I could do it,” she said of her pregnancy with Evelyn. “But instead, I was met with constant doubt.”
“And so, at the last minute I decided to head back to Planned Parenthood by myself in tears and go through with it,” Elizabeth said.
She had always been an advocate for Planned Parenthood, she said, thinking they were a wonderful organization that offered more than abortions.
“And so, when I went there, I was sure they would give counsel because they're such a wonderful company,” said Elizabeth. Instead, “they sat me in the room with the pill, and they told me to get on with it.”
She would struggle for quite a while there in the Planned Parenthood facility with going through with the abortion.
“I sat there for two hours with the woman coming in the room every five, 10 minutes and asking me why I felt like it was such a big deal and if I had taken the pill yet,” Elizabeth recalled. “And finally, they were closing, and I had a decision to make.”
“So, I went forward with it and took the pill,” she said.
Ben texted her at that moment to encourage her to keep the baby.
She returned home upset and the two searched the internet for how to stop a chemical abortion. They called the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN); Elizabeth spoke with an APRN nurse and within roughly 10 minutes a doctor in her area called her and gave her a prescription for progesterone.
Chemical Abortion Pill Reversal
The APRN is a worldwide network of more than 1,000 healthcare professionals, pregnancy centers, hospitals, and pharmacies that administer the Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) protocol.
APR is an updated application of a treatment used for decades to combat miscarriage. It entails administering progesterone to combat the effects of the first of two abortion pills in a chemical abortion, mifepristone.
If a woman acts quickly enough after taking mifepristone it may be possible to save her baby through APR. Results are best within 24 hours, but chemical abortion reversals have occurred as long as 72 hours after introduction of mifepristone.
All major studies show that using progesterone to counteract an in-progress chemical abortion can be effective since it’s bio-identical to the hormone a woman’s body produces to sustain her pregnancy.
A 2018 peer-reviewed study showed positive results, including 64%-68% of the pregnancies saved through APR, no increase in birth defects, and lower preterm delivery rate than the general population.
Statistics show that more than 6,000 lives have been saved through APR and counting.
Tweet This: Statistics show that more than 6,000 lives have been saved through APR and counting.
Elizabeth began taking the progesterone and was connected about a day later with a local pregnancy help center, Care Net Pregnancy Center of Paradise in a neighboring town.
She said she and Ben drove there in silence, her crying, not knowing whether their baby was still alive.
“When we got there, it was so different than Planned Parenthood,” Elizabeth said. “There was a line of women who greeted us and thanked us for coming.”
They held her hand, calmed her fears, and got her onto the ultrasound table where she was able to see Evelyn.
Tweet This: “When we got there, it was so different than Planned Parenthood” - mom served by pregnancy help center.
Seeing Baby Evelyn on the ultrasound "a special moment"
“And it was such a special moment,” said Elizabeth said.
Elizabeth and Ben went back to the pregnancy center each week to monitor Evelyn’s progress and receive relationship counseling and support.
“We became a couple,’ Elizabeth said.
It was touch-and-go during the first trimester, she said.
“But once we got through that, we realized that we had saved our baby and we got ready to become parents,” she said. “And it's been really an amazing journey.”
“And on January 18, 2024, I gave of birth to Evelyn,” she said. “She's now 15 months old and she's perfect in every way. So, I can't thank everyone enough.”
Elizabeth shared that she had found Christ in this process, and that she and Ben are preparing for marriage.
She shared as well that she and Ben were expecting another baby, a son, in early October.
Dad: Assistance from pregnancy center "was amazing"
Ben told the crowd that he was very proud of Elizabeth.
He discussed how at first he’d thought pregnancy centers were just for women.
When they’d arrived at Care Net of Paradise after contacting the APRN he sat in the lobby expecting to be called back when it was time to see the sonogram.
“After seeing how much hard work Elizabeth was doing to save our baby, I asked the pregnancy center - I knew I felt helpless - how I can contribute to this pregnancy,” Ben said. “And so, they sent me to a link of all these parenting courses that I could do.”
Ben said he took that and ran with it, completing over 200 courses so far, ranging from pregnancy to labor, to stages of being a toddler, and beyond.
“And it can help me better parent my teenagers,” he said. “I really felt like I'm a part of this pregnancy now.”
“It was amazing,” he said, even down to helping Elizabeth cope with leg cramps from potassium deficiency during pregnancy. The classes aided him in being hands-on support for Elizabeth during labor as well.
Ben shared how he’s heard from women who wished they’d had a window so that they could see their child growing inside their belly, and that because of the sonograms and assistance they received at the pregnancy center, he felt like he’d been given that window.
Ben has gone on to serve at the center in men’s programming, helping client partners to understand the importance of being there as a father for their women.
“And so, like I said, I thought the pregnancy centers were just for women,” Ben said, “but it made me a better man, better partner, and a better father for my children.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News. Heartbeat is currently the subject of lawsuits initiated by the state attorneys general of California and New York concerning advertising Abortion Pill Reversal.
