{"id":275547,"date":"2022-09-07T10:46:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T15:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=275547"},"modified":"2024-09-20T16:19:05","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T21:19:05","slug":"abortion-pill-reversal-fails-present-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-pill-reversal-fails-present-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Attack on abortion pill reversal once again fails to state the facts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Abortion pill reversal is an opportunity for women who regret their decision to have a second chance, and it has reportedly saved thousands of preborn lives. Yet the abortion industry \u2014 which frequently\u00a0flouts abortion pill FDA protocols<\/a> and\u00a0which claims to advocate for women’s choice \u2014 has fought to undermine abortion pill reversal at every chance, denigrating it as nothing more than a tool used by the pro-life movement to hurt women.<\/p>\n

Kate Knibbs, a senior writer for Wired, said,\u00a0“The first time I heard about it, I didn\u2019t understand why abortion pill reversal was a flashpoint in this culture war. It sounds like the rare thing pro-choice and antiabortion people could wholeheartedly agree on, a choice to not have an abortion. Win, win,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

However, she eventually\u00a0arrived at the conclusion that<\/a> abortion pill reversal is a nefarious tactic used by pro-lifers to reframe the debate around abortion.<\/p>\n

How it works<\/h3>\n

Mifepristone is the first drug in the abortion pill regimen, and works by blocking the pregnancy hormone progesterone, depriving the preborn child of oxygen and nutrients. Misoprostol is given next to induce contractions, forcing the baby’s body out of the mother’s uterus. The abortion pill reversal treatment administers progesterone to counteract the effects of mifepristone, ensuring the baby is able to continue growing and thriving.<\/p>\n

Progesterone is not a new treatment. It was the first hormone<\/a> to be discovered, dating back to the 1600s, and it has been used to prevent miscarriages since the 1950s. Today, it is estimated<\/a> that using progesterone when miscarriage is threatened could save over 8,000 preborn children each year. Yet Knibbs only claimed:<\/p>\n

… abortion pill reversal is not promoted by mainstream medical organizations. It has never been approved by the FDA, nor has it been tested in a randomized controlled trial. Many doctors worry that this treatment has simply not been studied enough to be safe to prescribe. In fact, the American Academy of Obstetricians and Gynecologists\u2014the most prominent professional association for ob-gyns in the United States, with over 60,000 members\u2014explicitly rejects abortion pill reversal.<\/em><\/p>\n

Christina Francis, a board member and CEO-elect of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), was interviewed briefly by Knibbs. \u201cThere\u2019s no increased risk of complications to mom and no increased risk of birth defects for baby,\u201d she said, adding of ACOG, \u201cTheir claim that it\u2019s not supported by the science is completely false.”<\/p>\n

This brief statement was overshadowed by lengthy paragraphs dedicated to arguments given by numerous abortionists<\/em> as to why abortion pill reversal is either dangerous, unethical, or does not work.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Creinin<\/h3>\n

Knibbs said ACOG told her to speak to abortionist Mitchell Creinin, the principal investigator of a study into abortion pill reversal at University of California-Davis. In his study, some women were given a placebo after taking mifepristone, while the other women were given progesterone to counteract the drug. Creinin told Knibbs abortion pill reversal is “bogus crap,” and she unquestioningly reprinted his propaganda as to why it allegedly does not work.<\/p>\n

“[T]he 2020 study had to be stopped early when three women (two who took the placebo, and one who took the progesterone) experienced bleeding heavy enough to send them to the emergency room,” she wrote. “There has not been another attempt to clinically test the reversal process since, and Creinin does not believe it should be offered as a treatment without sufficient evidence.”<\/p>\n

Notice that only one<\/em> of the three hospitalized women who hemorrhaged had received progesterone (reversal treatment), which does not have a known risk for hemorrhage. The other two received only the abortion pill, which does carry with it a known risk for hemorrhage<\/a>.<\/p>\n