UPDATE: As of the evening of July 21, 2022, the Abortion Pill Reversal page was restored on Facebook.
Women seeking assistance after changing their mind about chemical abortion have had one avenue to find help blocked by Facebook as the platform removed the Abortion Pill Reversal page this week.
Citing violation of community standards, Facebook unpublished the Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) page late in the business day Tuesday, July 19, without warning.
It is not clear how the APR Facebook page would be in violation of the community standards, but the Facebook message to Heartbeat International, which manages the APR Facebook page and the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN), stated, “This is because Abortion Pill Reversal goes against our Community Standards on guns, animals, and other regulated goods.”
The standard on regulated goods states that Facebook does not allow the platform’s users “to buy, sell, or exchange things such as … marijuana, medical drugs, or non-medical drugs.”
Neither the APR Facebook page nor the APRN website endeavor to buy, sell, or exchange medical or non-medical drugs.
Rather, they share basic information on the APR protocol, which is prescribed by medical professionals.
A woman interested in pursuing APR would seek treatment with a medical provider, and be prescribed progesterone, the natural hormone in a woman’s body necessary to sustain pregnancy.
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The APR Facebook page and APRN site at times also share accounts of women who have successfully reversed their chemical abortion. These stories are the women’s own personal experience, shared with their permission and backing, because they want other women in their same situation to have a second chance at saving their unborn child.
Heartbeat appealed the Facebook decision to pull the APR page and as of press time after having simply been referred back to the community standard information Heartbeat was advised that the support ticket for the claim was being closed and then offered a satisfaction survey.
at the time the APR Facebook page was unpublished
Advertisements for chemical abortion drugs remained on Facebook at time.
As things continued to develop Heartbeat leadership criticized Facebook’s move to take down the APR page.
“No woman should ever feel forced to finish an abortion she regrets,” said Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International, “but Facebook—by unpublishing our Abortion Pill Reversal page—has put women seeking help after changing their minds during a chemical abortion in the dark.”
“Facebook is intentionally hiding life-saving solutions from women and ultimately denying the mother her choice for life,” Godsey said.
Tweet This: “No woman should ever feel forced to finish an abortion she regrets”
The APR protocol is an updated application of a treatment to prevent miscarriage dating back to the 1950s.
Chemical abortion consists of two drugs, mifepristone, which blocks the progesterone in the pregnant mom’s system to starve the baby in utero, and misoprostol, taken a day or so later after the first drug, prompting the mom to go into labor and deliver her deceased child.
If a pregnant woman takes the first abortion pill and has regret and she acts soon enough, it may be possible to save her unborn child with Abortion Pill Reversal.
The APRN consists of approximately 1,000 providers worldwide who administer APR. The network’s statistics show that to date more than 3,500 lives have been saved by the APR protocol. About 150 women call the APRN each month seeking Abortion Pill Reversal.
Heartbeat International’s Director of Medical Impact also decried Facebook’s removal of the APR page.
“Hindering access to information for those seeking pregnancy options is not pro-choice, it is deliberately pro-abortion,” Christa Brown said. “A woman has every right to find information to try to save her baby’s life. Facebook's decision to side with Big Abortion limits information and choices and does not empower the women desperately seeking assistance and support.”
Chemical abortion accounts for more than half of the abortions committed in the U.S. each year, and that figure is expected to continue to rise. APR offers the possibility of an antidote, and the scenario of women seeking to reverse their chemical abortion illustrates that women can regret abortion, both a threat to the abortion lobby's narrative of abortion as empowering for women.
Abortion proponents have attempted to defame APR for some time, assisted by the media, claiming APR is junk science or even dangerous, typically with dubious substantiation, at times from individuals with ties to the abortion industry or even compensated roles with abortion drug manufacturers.
The most recent example was the same day that Facebook unpublished the Abortion Pill Reversal page on its platform, with an alternative media article critical of Facebook having allowed APR ads published, claiming APR was “potentially dangerous.”
Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, Abortion Pill Reversal, along with pregnancy help, has come under increased attack by abortion supporters, APR in the court of public opinion and pregnancy help centers targeted for vandalism, violence, threats and harassment.
Big Tech suppression of APR has been in play for some time as well.
Facebook used an unaccountable third-party factchecker to justify removing a post by Heartbeat sharing an APR mom’s poignant story last month.
Google had pulled ads for Abortion Pill Reversal placed by Heartbeat and pro-life group Live Action last fall, following agitation from a pro-abortion group for removal of the ads. Facebook was targeted in the campaign as well, prompting a review of the ads on its platform, but no decision had been made at the time. An appeal to Google by Heartbeat did not yield results.
Members of Congress have written to Google chiding the platform for caving in to abortion proponents’ demands to suppress APR.
Earlier this month the heads of the three major pregnancy help networks in the U.S. wrote Google’s CEO, refuting falsehoods put forth by the abortion industry and its allies in Congress to push for the quashing of pregnancy help centers in search results, and urging that Google remain neutral in the abortion debate.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, (D-N.Y.) went after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a letter in February over Facebook allowing Abortion Pill Reversal ads. Nadler relied on the same pro-abortion information and sources as have been propagated by the media and he disregarded the 3,000+ moms who chose something other than abortion, and have their children alive and with them thanks to the Abortion Pill Rescue Network.
The last Facebook post on the APR page before Facebook pulled the page had been on July 7.
It said:
"Momma: An important title, but not your only title. You can be momma and still be the CEO, student, writer, artist, chef or athlete. The title of “Momma” does not limit us. It empowers us!"
Facebook had removed a July 5 post from the APR page and restricted the APR page’s ability to comment, again citing community standards.
That post said:
“Change the way you think and you can change your life! We are here to help your SUCCEED, however that may look! Instead of: I’m pregnant and there’s no way I can raise a baby alone. Try this: I’m pregnant, I can do this, and I’m not alone. I found great support through a local pregnancy center!"
At press time Facebook parent Meta had swept APR from the Meta Ad Library, erasing all traces of the APR page. But Meta was still allowing the phrase "abortion pill" in advertising.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News.
