The American antiabortion movement is trying to change the nation's image. In June, its decades-long campaign to install sympathetic Supreme Court justices paid off. The movement is pushing for personhood laws in order to make abortion murder.
The push is starting to work in some states. A new law in Georgia allows expecting parents to claim their unborn children as dependents on their taxes. The victories are the result of a plan. This plan includes the rise of an experimental treatment called abortion pill "reversal". It might seem like a peripheral concern, but it is a revealing pet project. The rise of abortion pill reversal is contained in the anti abortion movement.
I didn't understand why abortion pill reversal was a flash point in the culture war when I first heard about it. It sounds like it's rare for pro-choice and anti-choice people to agree on something. Winning, winning. The method of medication abortion, which is the most popular method of abortion in the US, uses two pills. Mifepristone blocks a hormone that is needed for a pregnant woman to give birth to a baby. The second pill is usually taken within a day or two after the first pill. The uterus contracts when it is caused by it. In an abortion pill reversal, if someone begins an abortion by taking the mifepristone and then changes their mind, they are given a course of progesterone as soon as possible. Someone who has taken the first pill but not the second is the target of the reversal process.
George Delgado was one of the movement's golden boys after inventing the treatment. According to a New York Times Magazine article, Delgado had used a fertility drug for many years before he heard about a pregnant woman who was trying to stop her medication abortion. He found a doctor who was willing to give the woman a drug that would help the fetus. When he found an opportunity, he set up a hotline to get in touch with potential patients.
He first published a small case study showing how he tested it on six women in 2012 and then a larger case series following 547 patients as they underwent the process in order to see if it worked. The success rate for patients who were further along in their pregnancies was the highest. The patients who were selected took the drug within 72 hours and were in different stages of their pregnancies. A placebo-controlled trial in the population of women who regret their abortion would be unethical. The paper concludes that the protocol is both effective and safe.
The abortion pill reversal has become a topic of discussion. The largest network of crisis pregnancy centers in the country is supported by the anti abortion association Heartbeat International. Many of the centers are located near abortion clinics, and put up signs with information about abortion pill reversals. The abortion pill rescue network connects pregnant people to hundreds of medical professionals who will offer the reversal protocol. The first result will be the one about abortion pill reversal. Since 2012 more than 3000 babies have been born after someone took this treatment to reverse their abortions. The number of women given the reversal protocol has risen in recent years according to its president. 1,091 women used the Abortion Pill Rescue Network to reverse abortions in 2021, but the organization does not give demographic or geographic breakdowns of who is getting it, or whether there are any problems with those who aren't successful. The data on how many abortion pill reversals are completed is currently being shared by no one.
The reversal protocol has been prescribed to patients by Christina Francis, an ob-gyn based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She thinks it's both safe and sound. She says that there is no increased risk of birth defects for the baby and there is no increased risk for the mother. Her fellow anti abortion activists share her enthusiasm for the treatment.
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