One of the women I recently spoke with on the phone who had called the Abortion Pill Reversal hotline shared her reason with me for wanting to pursue the reversal process after taking the first abortion pill. She said that she had a previous chemical abortion and remembered seeing her baby come out. That image and memory were enough to make her realize she didn’t actually want to have another chemical abortion.
This story pained me. While it was encouraging to hear that she really wanted to reverse the process she had willingly started, this was the very first time I had spoken directly with someone who had said she had seen her baby after taking both sets of pills used in a chemical abortion regimen (mifepristone and misoprostol).
The abortion industry likes to make people think that abortion is not traumatic. What’s more is that they glorify chemical abortion (using abortion pills) as feeling “more natural” than a surgical abortion since it’s done “in the comfort of your own home.”
But let us consider what happens in a chemical abortion. A woman takes the first abortion pill, mifepristone, which is a progesterone receptor antagonist that is meant to compete with the naturally occurring progesterone in her body that is necessary to nurture and sustain her pregnancy. Blocking progesterone would mean blocking the nutrients necessary to help support her unborn baby’s growth and development.
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Some women who call our hotline say that abortion workers told them that this medicine “stops the baby’s heartbeat.” While ending an unborn baby’s life is certainly the intent of the chemical abortion process, this is not an accurate description of how mifepristone pharmacologically works. The medicine does not attack the baby directly.
Tweet This: Some women say abortion workers told them that the abortion pill “stops the baby’s heartbeat.” This is not accurate.
As described above, mifepristone tries to block the woman’s progesterone, which destabilizes her pregnancy. It is also not always effective on its own. As a result, babies do not always die after mifepristone is ingested (which is one of the reasons Abortion Pill Reversal is possible). However, this means that a baby could still be alive even after misoprostol (the second set of pills used in a chemical abortion) is taken to cause heavy bleeding and strong contractions to expel the baby from the uterus. Some women will bleed for days and weeks on end even after their babies have been lost. This is not “natural” or “comfortable” by any means.
Women are expected to flush their “pregnancy tissue” or “the contents of your uterus” down the toilet. Women can be traumatized by the sight of seeing their babies in a toilet and having to make that awful, conscious choice to flush.
But, as many of us in the pregnancy help movement know, some of these women hold their babies in their hands and can see the baby’s body parts.
They might have expected that a blob of tissue would come out. They weren’t told they might see their unborn baby after both sets of abortion pills were taken.
This fact, while very sad and disappointing, is something that sits heavy with us when we sit with a woman who is filled with regret after going through this all-too-common process.
But we are not without hope. And thus, we are not empty-handed (literally and physically).
We have hope, help, and healing to offer these women because we have been given hope, help, and healing by our great and merciful God.
And what I am so grateful for is the hope, help, and healing available to these women through the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network and getting to be a part of it. While the stories I hear are all-too-familiar and often all-too-painful, what inspires me to continue on in this work is that beautiful hope, the tangible help, and the heavenly healing that I can offer these women who call our hotline.
Tweet This: I am grateful for the hope, help, and healing available to women through the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network
Each of us who are part of the pregnancy help community have that same inspiration—the ability to come alongside a woman in an unexpected pregnancy and show her she’s not alone, and that there is hope, help, and healing available to them.
So let us persevere, even amidst the most challenging situations. Let us lean on one another, especially with the traumatic stories we hear. And let us always depend not on ourselves, but our all-powerful, ever-present Father in Heaven from whom we draw all of our hope, all of our help, and all of our healing.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News. This article has been edited for clarity.
