Heartbeat International worked to raise awareness of life-affirming pregnancy help and Abortion Pill Reversal on Capitol Hill last week. Heartbeat representatives accompanied a mom who saved her child’s life from chemical abortion to a Congressional briefing with federal lawmakers’ staff, where she told her story.
Heartbeat International is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally. Heartbeat regularly hosts its Babies Goes to Congress initiative in conjunction with the national March for Life in January where Heartbeat brings moms, their babies, and pregnancy center personnel to Capitol Hill to meet with federal legislators or their staff to share stories of pregnancy help with the lawmakers to raise awareness that pregnancy centers are good for America.
In the current climate with the continued rise of chemical abortion and attacks on both Abortion Pill Reversal and pregnancy help by abortion proponents Heartbeat arranged to conduct a briefing with representatives of pro-life Members of Congress, bringing APR mom Katelynn to share her journey to saving her daughter with Abortion Pill Reversal.
See specifics on Abortion Pill Reversal HERE and HERE.
Heartbeat President Jor-El Godsey opened the briefing with remarks on the history and foundation of the pregnancy help movement.
“Pregnancy help centers reflected the commitment of a segment of the local community to establish a harbor for helping women to not feel rushed into a decision they didn't truly want,” Godsey said.
Most pregnancy center services are provided at no cost to the woman, Godsey explained, made possible primarily due to the kindness and compassion of local community support.
Ultrasound and other medical services have been incorporated over the last 30 years to better serve women with critical knowledge while they're in the valley of decision, said Godsey. Today, more than 70% of all pregnancy centers in the U.S. have ultrasound services.
He discussed the ongoing attacks on pregnancy help.
“A concerted effort empowered by abortion proponents and emboldened by political opportunists has been mounted to discredit, to disrupt and even destroy the work of pregnancy help centers,” Godsey said. “The abortion industry has led the charge in calling us fake clinics, and doing so while these pregnancy centers actually have licensed healthcare professionals on staff, and as volunteers, activists.”
“Politicians across the country have taken up the abortion industry accusation of deceptive practice, and without any actual evidence,” he told Congressional staffers.
The pro-abortion animus is due to pregnancy help organizations’ providing the opportunity to help women to not need abortion, said Godsey.
See the facts in answer to pro-abortion “fake clinic” claims HERE.
He discussed big tech censorship of pregnancy help, the Supreme Court Dobbs ruling, and the prevalence of chemical abortion.
“With increased chemical abortion comes the increased immediate regret,” Godsey said. “For those who feel that immediate regret, we are thankful for the opportunity to offer to them one last chance to choose life, and we call it Abortion Pill Reversal.”
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Heartbeat International’s Senior Director of Medical Impact Christa Brown covered both chemical abortion and Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) for the briefing.
“The availability of abortion has changed,” Brown said.
In the past, women went to an abortion facility no matter what type of abortion they had, whether surgical or chemical, Brown explained.
“Today, that's no longer necessarily true,” she said.
“Many are getting these drugs through websites, through telehealth, and through some organizations that have made their mission the access to abortion,” said Brown. “No matter where the woman is, no matter where she is in the world, these drugs can be delivered to her doorstep.”
With more women choosing to have abortion in the privacy of their own homes, Brown said, for those that abuse, pimp, or traffic women, chemical abortion has given them the opportunity to make the decision for women.
“We've had women call our hotline who had these pills forced into their mouth,” she said. “We've had women locked in closets where they're not allowed to come out until they agree to the abortion. And then there's the poisoning, the ability to grind these drugs into food, put them into the drink in a smoothie and oatmeal or exchange of medication that the woman is taking so she unknowingly takes abortion drugs.”
“This gives the power to the abuser,” she explained.
See specifics on chemical abortion HERE.
In the past a woman would go to an abortion facility, have an ultrasound, there would be informed consent, and there would be some kind of confirmation of the baby living in the uterus, and the baby’s gestational age, Brown said.
“We no longer have that,” she said.
Just a few years ago, 100% of the callers to the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN) had had an ultrasound, said Brown, but this last year that number dropped to 62%. Heartbeat manages the APRN.
“So, when a woman starts her abortion, she thinks she's six weeks, but she very well may be much farther,” Brown said.
“It's advertised as safer than Tylenol, but that absolutely is not the case,” Brown informed Congressional staffers. “These drugs are four times more dangerous than surgical abortion. And the visits to emergency departments for abortion-related cases have increased by 400%.”
Talking to someone who works in an emergency department, they will tell you on every single shift a woman presents with a hemorrhage or an infection following of a chemical abortion, Brown said. And regarding mental health crisis; one in three women who has a chemical abortion reports, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and thoughts of suicide.
“But there is good news for women who take the abortion pill and realize this did not solve any of her problems,” said Brown. “There is still hope for her and her choices do not end in that moment.”
She proceeded to detail specifics of the Abortion Pill Reversal process; prescription of bioidentical progesterone that reverses the effects of mifepristone, the first drug in an abortion pill process.
“We know that this is safe for moms and it's safe for babies,” she said.
“Progesterone's been used safely in pregnancy since the 1950s,” said Brown. “It's a routine drug in OB.”
The Abortion Pill Reversal Network was started in 2012, and since that time, thousands of children have been born following successful abortion pill reversal, said Brown.
See specifics on the safety and efficacy of Abortion Pill Reversal HERE.
with Heartbeat International/Lisa Bourne
And more good news, she said, is the pregnancy help organizations in the U.S.
With pregnancy help women woman can obtain services free of charge to them. There is also Heartbeat’s 24/7 contact center Option Line, where a woman can have support and answers on the phone within seconds. There is also the APR hotline, manned by nurses 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter where the woman is in the world.
“If she's having regret after starting an abortion, she can reach out and our nurses will answer questions and they will explain reversal and connect her with a provider in her area,” Brown said.
“To date, we've helped women in 86 different countries reverse their chemical abortions,” she said. “We have a network of more than 1400 medical professionals, clinics, and hospitals throughout the world who stand by waiting to prescribe this progesterone to reverse the effects of mifepristone and the success rate is nearly 70%.”
See specifics about the Abortion Pill Rescue Network HERE and HERE, and information on Option Line HERE.
The real heroes though, are the women who face incredible odds, said Brown, who see the pressures and stresses in their life, and look at all that adversity in the face and choose life for their children.
“And I'm incredibly in awe of each of them,” she said, introducing Katelynn, who shared about how a call to the Abortion Pill Rescue Network not only saved the life of her little girl, but also changed her life.
Tweet This: Heartbeat International raised awareness of pregnancy help & Abortion Pill Reversal during a Congressional briefing on Capitol Hill Jan. 19.”
Katelynn was followed by Heartbeat’s General Counsel Danielle White, who explained how on a typical day, five women like Katelynn will call the Abortion Pill Rescue Network, statistics indicating that three to four of them will go on to have to have healthy pregnancies.
“This is exactly the type of story that we hear very commonly, and it's a story that our opposition does not want to get out,” White said.
See examples of the many lives saved through the Abortion Pill Rescue Network HERE.
Since Dobbs, the pregnancy help movement has been the target of increasing hostility, she explained, whether through the violence in the early days following Dobbs, or now efforts to delegitimize pregnancy centers with accusations the centers are misleading clients, to efforts to enact local ordinances or state laws that are additionally burdensome on the speech rights of centers.
Heartbeat's Congressional briefing/Lisa Bourne
White discussed the varying types of attacks on pregnancy help for providing women options and information so that they can make a choice for themselves.
“We have a lot going on,” White said, “but we're encouraged because we see stories like Katelynn’s every day. We get to see the lives that are saved and the families that are impacted.”
“The reality is that Abortion Pill Reversal is saving lives,” said White. “It is building families, and it is bringing and renewing communities for life.”
Tweet This: “The reality is that Abortion Pill Reversal is saving lives. It is building families, and it is bringing and renewing communities for life.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News.
