A group of California pregnancy help medical clinics continues to serve women and families with comprehensive holistic, medical services even as a lawsuit challenges its right to share information about Abortion Pill Reversal (APR).
RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics, of the San Francisco Bay area, is a party in People v. Heartbeat International, et al., wherein California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Heartbeat and RealOptions under the guise of a business code violation for false advertising. Bonta claims that APR is medical misinformation and is seeking to bar both Heartbeat and RealOptions from “advertising Abortion Pill Reversal as safe and effective.”
Abortion Pill Reversal
APR is an updated application of a treatment used since the 1950s to combat miscarriage. It entails prescribing bioidentical progesterone to counter the effects of mifepristone, the first of two drugs in a chemical abortion.
Mifepristone blocks progesterone, the natural hormone necessary in a woman’s system to sustain pregnancy. The second pill, misoprostol, taken a day or so later, causes the mother to go into labor and deliver her deceased child.
If a woman has taken the first pill and acts quickly enough it may be possible to save her unborn child. Successful reversals have occurred as long as 72 hours after mifepristone was taken, but results are best within 24 hours.
All major studies show that using progesterone to counteract an in-progress chemical abortion can be effective because it’s bio-identical to progesterone.
A 2018 peer-reviewed study showed positive results, including that 64%-68% of the pregnancies were saved through APR, no increase in birth defects, and a lower preterm delivery rate than the general population.
Heartbeat, the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally, manages the Abortion Pill Rescue Network, a network of nearly 1,500 healthcare professionals, pregnancy centers, and hospitals worldwide that administer the APR protocol.
Statistics show that more than 8,000 lives have been saved through the APRN. Several of those mothers provided depositions for the California case.
Represented by legal non-profit Thomas More Society, Heartbeat and RealOptions have asked for summary judgement (a ruling issued before trial that would resolve the lawsuit), and the next scheduled hearing is April 29. Barring such a ruling the trial is scheduled for early June.
Despite being sued for giving women a second chance at choice with APR, RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics Chief Executive Officer Tasha Keirns said it’s “an incredible honor” that God has chosen the organization for this legal battle and given them a platform to stand up and speak on behalf of women.
“We firmly believe that no woman should be forced to complete an abortion she no longer consents to,” said Keirns, an RN who also has a BSN degree.
RealOptions has had 44 babies born following APR treatment, Keirns said, this includes three sets of twins and seven more pregnancies that are currently progressing well.
Tweet This: "We firmly believe that no woman should be forced to complete an abortion she no longer consents to" - RealOptions Obria CEO Tasha Keirns.
Lives saved – and changed
As notable as this life-saving record is, APR is but one service among many provided by RealOptions Medical Clinics.
“The purpose of real Options is to safeguard the lives of women, men, students, and families who are facing difficult pregnancy decisions, sexual health choices, and seeking emotional healing from reproductive loss as we advance a culture of life in the Bay Area,” Keirns told Pregnancy Help News.
Real Options has four licensed medical clinics that encircle the Bay Area; Oakland Union City, Central San Jose, and East San Jose. The clinics provide both men’s and women’s health services.
The Christian nonprofit has three departments of its ministry; prevention, intervention, and restoration.
Prevention encompasses education for students in school and church settings.
The intervention piece is the medical clinics, and the restoration is reproductive loss support.
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Teaching health and healthy relationships
With education, RealOptions personnel go into local public and private schools to teach a healthy relationship curriculum to students in 5-12 grade and to young adults in church settings.
The evidence-based curriculum is REAL Essentials from the Center for Relationship Education and covers topics such as boundaries, peer pressure, life skills, sexual harassment and consent, pornography, STDs, and sexting/cyberbullying.
The instruction can take different forms or structures depending on the setting and timeframe, and there are two versions, one biblically based for use in faith-based settings and the other for secular environments.
“Our educators are all certified in that curriculum to teach within the classroom, as well as it's a way for us to serve the church,” Kerins said. “We can come into the church and serve their youth, serve their young adults, come alongside them, and help them tackle difficult, controversial topics.”
“It covers the preventative aspect where we get to come in, help teach foundations, core life lessons, and help them to start navigating this space to make good and healthy decisions,” she added.
RealOptions was in roughly 20 different schools last year delivering programming in up to 6 to 10 classes each, providing over 17,000 hours of education in the classroom to 2029 unique students.
Comprehensive medical services
Each of the four medical clinics is equipped with both medical and non-medical staff, Keirns said. Every clinic has a registered nurse on shift for the full day, as well as three nurse practitioners that rotate between different clinic locations to offer advanced practice care.
Services offered in the clinics are pregnancy testing and ultrasound, STI testing and treatment for female and male patients. In addition, the clinics offer APR, and nurse practitioners provide advanced level care services, including annual physicals for women, GYN services, care for any complications or issues they may have, as well as prenatal care.
“For patients who choose life or are interested in taking that next step in their pregnancy, we can get them started with that care, help them to navigate the medical system,” Keirns said.
The clinics can get patients approved up front as they are a Medi-Cal provider in California.
“We help them along to make sure that they and baby are healthy,” she said.
Tweet This: RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics has had 44 babies born following APR treatment, including 3 sets of twins & 7 more pregnancies in progress
Holistic health
The non-medical services offered in the clinics include optimal health coaching with certified life coaches who come alongside patients for various needs to make sure that they have holistic health, whether they're male or female.
“In addition, we do offer grief and loss support for pregnancy loss services, with our grief care specialist who has been certified to help women manage any reproductive loss and the disassociation that can happen with that,” said Keirns. This also included women in a new pregnancy who may be having issues bonding with their baby or dealing with any repercussions from infertility or any kind of reproductive loss.
Life-affirming outreach to students
Intervention also includes exhibiting on campus at local colleges and universities. RealOptions also has student clubs on campuses in proximity to the four medical clinics where they come in and bring life-affirming programming to the schools.
“We have exhibits out on the quad of the university itself weekly,” Keirns said, “and we have the opportunity to engage with the students about holistic health abstinence, about sexual health, about pregnancy, and abortion.”
They will pass out free pregnancy tests and coupons for a free ultrasound at the clinics.
This is an opportunity for good engagement, she said, noting that it has become law that all California state and UC campuses are legally required to distribute the abortion pill through the student health center.
“And so, every UC and state school has become an abortion provider,” Keirns said. “So, it's important that there is a live presence on campus to let them know that there are other resources available to them, and that we would love to help educate them.”
These engagements are key for letting students know that APR services are available, she said, so that young women who change their mind after taking the abortion pill either in their dorm room or in their off-campus housing are navigating that situation alone.
Wide-ranging reproductive loss options
RealOptions’ restoration services offer online reproductive loss support groups, resources, Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats, and Hope Conferences.
Support groups are provided in English and Spanish.
The reproductive loss ministry embodies the comprehensive nature of RealOptions’ approach to serving patients, recognizing that people can have different types of reproductive loss during different stages of life.
“We define as reproductive loss as from abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth, adoption placement, and infertility,” Keirns told Pregnancy Help News. “It's full scope, because we do want to help people navigate the grief and loss that's associated with all reproductive loss.”
“So, again, we want to make sure that we're able to encompass all of that for both women and for men as well,” said Keirns.
In addition to Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats, Real Options’ Hope Conference is an adapted version of the retreat presented over two days in local churches. This makes the programming available for those who cannot attend an overnight retreat and allows for building relationships with the churches hosting the conference.
“We really want to make sure that we have the opportunity to provide both options so that no one is left behind,” Keirns said, “and help the community in that way.”
RealOptions had 350 unique participants in its reproductive loss programs last year.
Its four medical clinics saw 3049 unique patients in 2025, and they had 956 babies born, where their parents, who were either considering or interested in abortion when they came in, chose life.
Tweet This: RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics saw 3049 unique patients in 2025, and had 956 babies born after their parents chose life.
Even with the task of defending its right to share information on the APR protocol, RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics remain focused on providing holistic healthcare to its San Francisco Bay-area patients.
“There are no heavy hearts here,” Keirns said. “God is in control and is using Heartbeat and RealOptions to fulfill His will and bring life to our state.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News. At press time, Heartbeat was the subject of two lawsuits brought by state AGs concerning sharing information about Abortion Pill Reversal.
