Imagine you find out you are pregnant and the timing is horrible. All your plans will be impacted by this pregnancy. You wonder how you can take care of a baby, but you struggle with the thought of ending the life within you. Then you decide to make an abortion appointment because you don’t know what else to do. You drive to the abortion clinic and because you are still super early you learn that you can take some pills instead of having a surgical abortion procedure. The doctor gives you some medication to take right away and says to take the next pills at a later time. With some trepidation you swallow the pills with sips of water, and leave the clinic.
As you drive away, you break down. You realize you made a mistake. You don’t really want to kill the tiny life within you. Tears flow freely down your face. This isn’t what you wanted…the pregnancy or the abortion. You know you will regret today as long as you live. When you get home you Google, “I took the first abortion pills, is it too late to stop my abortion?” You see a result that says “FAQs Abortion Pill Reversal.” You are astounded to find out you may be able to stop the process. You make the call upon seeing a phone number listed, speak to someone, and find a glimmer of hope.
Reverse a Medical Abortion?
As crazy as it sounds, some doctors are using the female hormone progesterone to reverse medical abortions. Dr. George Delgado is the director of Abortion Pill Reversal and has been leading the effort to help women reverse abortions. In February he testified before the Colorado Legislature and stated, “…our overall success rate is 50 to 55 percent.”
Abortion reversal does not pertain to surgical abortion procedures but only to the “abortion pill.”
Medical Abortion (abortion pill)
A medical abortion is done early in a pregnancy (up to 10 weeks). The woman needs to take two separate medications a few days apart to complete the abortion. The first medication is a drug called mifepristone (also known as RU486 or the abortion pill) which blocks the body from using progesterone. Progesterone is a natural female hormone that helps to sustain a pregnancy. Women who are prone to miscarriage often take progesterone early in pregnancy to increase their chances of carrying the pregnancy. When the body can’t use progesterone, the lining of the uterus loses blood flow and sloughs off, ending the life of the unborn baby. The second medication, misoprostol, causes uterine contractions to help expel the contents of the uterus.
Abortion Reversal
Abortion pill reversal is a fairly new and somewhat controversial medical regimen that uses the hormone progesterone to reverse an early medical abortion. The regimen is intense and time-consuming and has no guarantees of success. Currently the success rate is estimated at around 55% depending on how long it has been since taking the first pills and how far along a woman is in her pregnancy.
A woman has a short window of time to begin the progesterone, usually within 72 hours, although within 24 hours has the greatest chance of success. She must not have taken the second set of pills. The woman will receive an ultrasound to be sure there is a fetal heartbeat within a few days of starting the regimen. She may receive the progesterone in daily injections or pills/suppositories. This is a long term commitment and some of the pregnancies will still fail; but there have been many success stories with healthy deliveries.
Newsworthy
Wyoming’s neighbor, Utah, enacted a law that will begin May of 2017 requiring that abortion providers let their patients know that medical abortion may be reversible.
If you or someone you know has started a medical abortion, hasn’t taken the second pill, is within 72 hours of taking the first pill, and regrets her decision to abort, contact the Abortion Pill Reversal Hotline at 877-558-0333. Learn more at http://abortionpillreversal.com/.