Elizabeth was facing an unplanned pregnancy, and because she felt unsupported like many women, she thought that abortion was her only choice.
“I was in crisis mode, because I always wanted the baby,” Elizabeth said. “I just really needed one person to say, ‘We’ll do this together.’ Whether it was my sister or my neighbor, I just wanted someone to say, ‘You’re not alone, we’re going to do this.’”
In her statement Elizabeth hit upon the crux of pregnancy help; human connection, compassion, and support in response to unplanned pregnancy.
Elizabeth went forward with a chemical abortion, and also like many women, she had regret. She underwent Abortion Pill Reversal (APR), an updated application of a progesterone treatment used for decades to combat miscarriage, and ultimately reversed the chemical abortion, one of thousands of moms to do so, and gave birth in January 2024 to her daughter Evelyn.
Elizabeth told her story for a segment of the Legal Docket on The World and Everything in It podcast, the episode focusing on two state attorneys general suing to quash mention of APR.
“I hate the thought that other people will be robbed of the opportunity to even try,” Elizabeth said. “And I just don’t think it’s fair to shut that opportunity off to anybody who wants it.”
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Podcast hosts Nick Eicher and Mary Reichard discussed how New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued Heartbeat International and 11 New York pregnancy centers, claiming that the pregnancy help organizations are guilty of false advertising with APR. They mentioned as well how California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a similar lawsuit against Heartbeat International and five pregnancy centers in his state.
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and the world and manages the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN), a network of nearly 1,500 healthcare professionals, pregnancy centers, pharmacies, and hospitals that provide or manage the APR protocol.
Chemical abortion, the most prevalent abortion method in the U.S., consists of two drugs, mifepristone, which deprives the unborn child of necessary nutrients by blocking progesterone in the mother’s system, and misoprostol, taken a day or so later, prompting the mother to go into labor and deliver her presumably deceased child.
If a woman acts quickly enough after taking the first drug, mifepristone, it may be possible to save her child with APR. The reversal protocol entails administering bioidentical progesterone to counteract the mifepristone. To date, statistics show that more than 7,000 lives have been saved through APR and counting.
All major studies show that using progesterone to counteract an in-progress chemical abortion (APR) 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 that 64%-68% of the pregnancies were saved through APR, was no increase in birth defects, and APR had a lower preterm delivery rate than the general population.
Still, abortion proponents actively criticize the APR protocol or even work to suppress it.
The World and Everything in It host Nick Eicher said that James was using the power of her office to fight APR.
Eicher had also inquired with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association (AMA), both of which support abortion access and oppose APR, for comment on their respective stances on APR.
The AMA did not respond. ACOG declined to be interviewed and referred the hosts to its Abortion Pill Reversal fact sheet.
“Here’s what I was able to find out,” Eicher said. “The studies that it cites are inconclusive. They show neither clear harm nor clear benefit. And yet, supplemental progesterone has been used for decades to help women at risk of miscarriage.”
Eicher noted that, “supporters of Abortion Pill Reversal point to case studies, animal studies, evidence of the mechanism of action, and hundreds if not thousands of women who say it worked for them,” while opponents say there are no clinical trials for APR.
The podcast hosts also heard from attorney Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of Litigation for legal non-profit Thomas More Society, which represents Heartbeat and the centers.
Breen addressed why clinical trials have not been conducted with Abortion Pill Reversal:
It's unethical to tell a woman who wants to save her baby, we're going to give you a placebo instead of giving you progesterone. I mean, you just can't do that study. And what was funny is ACOG was saying, well, there's no randomized controlled trial. Well, we went back through ACOG's other recommendations in other areas of reproductive health. They repeatedly rely on case studies. The same thing we have in this situation, because a lot of times it's unethical to do a randomized controlled trial on human women who are pregnant or considering being pregnant.
“This isn’t just about science. It’s also about politics …” Eicher said.
Elizabeth shared the remainder of her APR story on the podcast.
This included such elements as people around her telling her that abortion was the easiest way out of her unplanned pregnancy, how Planned Parenthood staff did not want to show her the ultrasound screen when scanning her unborn child, and her continued ambivalence about going through with the abortion.
Not long after she took the first abortion pill Elizabeth heard from the baby’s father, Ben, who texted her to get out of the Planned Parenthood facility, telling her they could parent the child.
After she returned home Elizabeth and Ben anxiously searched the internet for options to reverse a chemical abortion and found the Abortion Pill Rescue Network.
Elizabeth was put in touch with a local doctor who prescribed progesterone, which she began taking that night.
Eicher told listeners that Eliabeth had been through a chemical abortion before, and that time, she began to lose the baby prior taking the second pill, “so she braced for the worst.”
“And I got a completely different result this time from taking the progesterone,” Elizabeth said. “She was born healthy, and it's been the best decision I ever made.”
Tweet This: “She was born healthy, and it's been the best decision I ever made” - APR mom Elizabeth regarding undertaking Abortion Pill Reversal.
Elizabeth and Ben learned later that the name they chose for their daughter means “wished for child” or “desired.”
They are now engaged and expecting a son soon. In addition to administering APR, the pregnancy center they visited has given them free counseling that has helped them work through challenges and stay together.
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. Elizabeth and Ben have also shared their story for Heartbeat’s Babies Go to Congress initiative and at the Heartbeat International Annual Pregnancy Help Conference.
