Democrats insist that it’s impossible to reverse the abortion-pill process, but pro-life advocates say the thing that never happens has now happened more than 8,000 times.
Heartbeat International announced that the number of women who have saved their pregnancies through the Abortion Pill Rescue Network has grown to 8,000, up from 7,000 in June.
“This milestone represents far more than a number,” said Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey in a Tuesday statement. “Each life saved reflects a woman who had a change of heart and was met with immediate, compassionate medical care. In a culture that moves at the speed of a click, our response must be just as fast.”
He emphasized that the “Abortion Pill Rescue Network is here so that no woman who regrets starting a chemical abortion feels alone or without options.”
The network connects women who have taken mifepristone, the first of the two drugs in the abortion protocol, with healthcare providers able to write them prescriptions for bioidentical progesterone.
Mifepristone blocks progesterone, which causes the pregnancy to stop developing. The second drug, misoprostol, triggers the contractions that essentially induce a miscarriage.
“When administered quickly, progesterone can counteract the effects of mifepristone and help sustain the pregnancy,” said the group.
The two-pill regimen is responsible for an estimated two-thirds of U.S. pregnancy terminations, in many cases prescribed via telehealth without a doctor’s visit and delivered via mail.
“As access has expanded, inquiries to the APR hotline have continued to rise,” said Heartbeat.
An estimated 500 abortions had been countered when Heartbeat assumed management of the network eight years ago, but since then, the group’s progress has been “steady and incremental each year,” said Andrea Trudden, Heartbeat’s vice president of communications and marketing.
The program’s growth comes despite pushback from Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has called abortion-reversal claims “erroneous,” and Democrat-led states seeking to stop Heartbeat from promoting the APR process.
“Abortions cannot be reversed,” said Attorney General Letitia James in a 2024 statement. “Any treatments that claim to do so are made without scientific evidence and could be unsafe.”
So far, however, the courts have sided with proponents of abortion-pill reversal.
In August, Heartbeat won a permanent injunction against Colorado’s 2023 law classifying APR as “unprofessional conduct,” while the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December against New York’s lawsuit against pro-life pregnancy centers for promoting abortion-pill reversals.
The Abortion Pill Reversal Network has also faced pushback from social media platforms.
“In September 2021, Google implemented advertising restrictions that prevent us from promoting abortion pill reversal services on its platform, which has limited our ability to expand awareness online,” said Ms. Trudden. “Even with those restrictions, the Abortion Pill Rescue Network has continued operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, connecting women who have taken the first abortion pill and are seeking help with medical professionals prepared to serve them.”
Foes of the APR process accuse providers of promoting “false” and “misleading” information, while proponents point out that progesterone is widely used to counter miscarriages.
“Progesterone has been used in pregnancy care for decades,” said Christa Brown, Heartbeat’s director of medical impact. “The Abortion Pill Rescue Network ensures that women who change their minds have access to licensed medical professionals who can respond quickly. Time matters, and so does accurate information.”
The organization said that the best results come when women receive progesterone within 24 hours of taking mifepristone, although pregnancies have been saved outside the 24-hour window.
Heartbeat International said it works with more than 4,000 affiliated pro-life pregnancy centers worldwide and 1,500 medical professionals.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.