FONTANA, CALIF. -- The hours leading up to Memorial Day, 2014 are not soon to be forgotten by Susan Liptak or the rest of the staff at Assure Pregnancy Clinic.
With vacation plans just hours from fruition, a client came into the Fontana, Calif., clinic with a need that couldn’t wait the three-day weekend.
The client, “Jen,” had been given the first of two doses involved in the RU-486 regimen at a local Planned Parenthood the day before, and she was already beginning to regret her decision.
A college student with career plans, married, with a toddler in the house, Jen had chosen to abort her second child despite the excitement of her husband and extended family. Though she never wanted an abortion in her heart, Jen says “my mind was already sure what it wanted.”
And so, after an initial visit to Planned Parenthood, where she was kept from hearing a heartbeat and shown “a blurry picture of the ‘fetus,’” Jen went through with step one of the two-step RU-486 procedure just before the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
What Jen couldn’t get over, however, was the thought of a heartbeat. The day-plus that followed her first round of the abortion pill was consumed with the thought of a beating heart she was silencing.
Meanwhile, Jen was feeling painful physical effects brought on by Mifepristone, the first pill of the abortion regimen, which is designed to kill the unborn child.
She had to seek help. And fast.
That’s when Jen found Assure Pregnancy Clinic and one of its staff nurses, Susan Liptak, who performed the ultrasound Jen had so desperately wanted—at no charge. The ultrasound revealed Jen’s baby was seven weeks, three days old, with a heartbeat of 153.
“[Jen] came in and said, ‘I took the first pill. I don’t want to do it now. I’ve changed my mind and I don’t know what to do,’” Liptak said. “We prayed with her and I said, ‘I know of this center online that can help us. Would you like me to call?’”
Liptak’s call was to the staff at Culture of Life Family Services, which launched AbortionPillReversal.com and has grown a network of 226 pro-life OB-GYNs, who are prepared to provide an early dose of supplemental progesterone to block the effects of Mifepristone, and follow up with treatments to prevent the unwanted abortion.
Since launching in 2012, AbortionPillReversal.com has seen 77 children born after their mothers sought help following the first round of the RU-486 regimen.
“In those 77 births, every woman has said, ‘I don’t know what I would have done without you. I can’t believe I did this, and now I have this miracle baby. Look at him or her,’ Debbie Bradel BSN PHN, Abortion Pill Reversal Coordinator said. "It’s a very positive experience, and many go on to be very pro-life advocates. One woman in particular spoke in front of the 50,000 people at the Walk for Life West Coast just this last Saturday."
Though Liptak’s initial attempts to reach a doctor prepared to provide the treatment failed, within two hours, she had located a doctor in her area who saw Jen that day and began the life-saving treatment.
“We always rejoice when someone changes their mind about getting an abortion,” Liptak said. “But when someone has actually started the process, this was like God was saying, ‘You guys are doing what you’re supposed to be doing.’”
“God just had his hand on the whole thing. It was just amazing."
Liptak kept in contact with Jen in the months that followed, checking in to make sure everything was going well with the pregnancy and to offer any help Assure Pregnancy Clinic could for Jen and her family.
It wasn’t until early January that Liptak heard back from Jen, who had given birth Dec. 20, 2014, to a healthy baby boy at seven pounds, two ounces—far from the impending certainty of fetal deformity Planned Parenthood staff had all but guaranteed Jen before she visited Assure Pregnancy Clinic.
"There is help out there for women who are confused,” Jen said. “There is a new light in my home that brings a smile to everyone in my family. And I would not change it for the world."
