U.S. House staff heard powerful personal testimony on coerced chemical abortion and learned about pregnancy help, Abortion Pill Reversal, and the challenges faced by both at a joint Congressional staff briefing this week.
The Senate Pro-Life Caucus hosted “A Second Chance at Choice – Heartbeat International on the Hope Offered Through Abortion Pill Reversal” Wednesday with Heartbeat International experts presenting the growing negative impact of chemical abortion in the United States and the documented hope offered through Abortion Pill Reversal.
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in both the U.S. and the world. Pregnancy help organizations consist of pregnancy centers and medical clinics, non-profit adoption agencies, and maternity homes.
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
At the briefing Heartbeat International hosted Catherine Pressly Herring, who provided an account of her harrowing experience of being poisoned by chemical abortion drugs by her husband for the Congressional staffers, followed by her hope-filled story of reversing the chemical abortion drugs with the APR progesterone treatment.
The APR protocol is an updated application of decades-old treatment used to combat miscarriage. It entails prescribing progesterone to counter the effects of mifepristone, the first of two drugs in a chemical abortion that blocks progesterone in a pregnant woman’s system. Thousands of lives have been saved through Abortion Pill Reversal.
Herring’s story went viral and was the inspiration for Louisiana’s Catherine and Josephine Herring Act, which went into effect October 2024 and requires the classification of the abortion pill drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances.
Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey gave an overview of how pregnancy help organizations serve, Heartbeat’s role as a network, and the common misconceptions about pregnancy help which are set straight by the PregnancyCenterTruth.com website.
While modern pregnancy help is 60 years-old, Godsey said, yet the essence of pregnancy help has not changed.
“The model is local, it's relational, and it's practical,” he said. “That has been what has been working from the very beginning and continues to work.”
The abortion industry is changing with the continued move towards chemical abortion, he explained, to where now more than 70% of all abortions in the U.S. are chemical abortions.
“The abortion industry actually dangles this seemingly easy out for a woman suddenly facing an unintended pregnancy,” Godsey said.
“She's often rushed into that decision, and one that she doesn't really want, and that really produces regret,” he said. “Many regret that choice almost immediately. And we hear from them often at our Abortion Pill Rescue Network.”
Heartbeat manages the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN), which includes nearly 1,500 healthcare professionals, pregnancy centers, and hospitals worldwide.
About 200 women call APRN each month and start abortion pill reversal, equating to six reversal starts a day.
Godsey’s remarks dovetailed into those from Heartbeat International Heartbeat International Senior Director of Medical Impact Christa Brown, who oversees the Abortion Pill Rescue Network and is a former pregnancy center director.
“I personally have sat with thousands of women making very difficult pregnancy choices,” Brown said. “And I understand that it can be very confusing, how a woman can choose a portion, and then immediately have regret of wanting to continue her pregnancy.”
Big Abortion and their allies would have everyone believe that abortion empowers women, she said, that it elevates them to a status that can only be attained if they sacrifice their children and their motherhood.
“But this could not be farther from the truth,” Brown said.
She explained that most women who start an abortion under some level of duress, and detailed how easily chemical abortion pills can be obtained, whether or not one is pregnant or even female. Brown proceeded to note the different ways this opens the door for abuse of women, and the risks to women undergoing chemical abortion without medical oversight.
Brown discussed Abortion Pill Reversal as the antidote to chemical abortion, saying every day a child is born after successful reversal.
“These children, who once came in only as an abortion statistic, are life and thriving in the image of God,” said Brown. “And the best part is that our data shows there are more than 7,000 of these children.”
Herring walked through the experience of being poisoned by her husband after he learned she was pregnant with their third child. He slipped the second abortion drug, misoprostol, into a glass of water he gave her.
In the two-drug chemical abortion regimen misoprostol causes the mother to deliver her deceased child after mifepristone blocks the progesterone and starves the baby in utero of nutrients.
Herring suspected what had happened as her husband had requested separation and moved out around the time she had learned she was pregnant. Herring searched online for how to reverse a chemical abortion and found the Abortion Pill Rescue Network where she spoke with a nurse who explained APR treatment.
Herring had become extremely ill after the poisoning and during her discussions with the APRN the nurse encouraged her to go to the ER.
Her husband would attempt to poison her six more times, and Herring was able to document and collect evidence, including having two witnesses present for one attempt and the final attempt being caught on camera.
After Herring filed a report and submitted evidence to the local police department her husband was arrested and after a plea deal sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years of probation.
“I believe this case was a complete failure of our justice system,” Herring said.
Her husband was arrested again after being released from jail for violating Catherine Herring’s protective order against him and is currently back in jail.
After connecting with the APRN Herring took progesterone and her baby Josephine is three years old. She says the swift implementation of progesterone treatment is why her daughter is alive today.
Herring is now calling for bans on coerced abortion and more regulation of chemical abortion drugs, advocates for coerced and forced abortion victims, and she has founded a non-profit that supports domestic violence survivors.
The common element between extreme cases like Herrings and many women making an abortion decision is women feeling forced or that they don’t have freedom in the situation, Heartbeat International General Counsel Danielle White told the Congressional briefing.
“I think that if there's anything that everyone should be able to agree on, it should be that no woman should be forced to complete an abortion that she doesn't want,” she said. “And that's true across the board for anyone.”
Tweet This: If there's anything that everyone should be able to agree on, it's that no woman should be forced to complete an abortion she doesn't want.
White presented details of different U.S. states that have acted to quash Abortion Pill Reversal legislatively and state attorney’s general who have filed suit to suppress mention of APR.
Heartbeat International Vice President of Communications and Marketing Andrea Trudden ran down different attacks from activist groups and suppression efforts by Big Tech.
The Heartbeat team and Herring held various other meetings on Capitol Hill during the week, sharing Herring’s story and educating on APR and pregnancy help.
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 attorney’s general concerning sharing information about Abortion Pill Reversal.
