Colorado Bill Would Prohibit Abortion Pill Reversal

So much for “choice.” Pro-abortion legislators in Colorado have introduced SB23-190 which, if enacted, would subject doctors to professional discipline “if the health-care provider provides, prescribes, administers, or attempts medication abortion reversal.”

I think pro-life advocates made a strategic mistake when they introduced “abortion pill reversal” (APR) as an amazing new technology. It is certainly amazing for the families who have benefitted from it, but from a scientific perspective, it’s just progesterone. Women’s bodies naturally produce progesterone, and synthetic progesterone has been used for decades for a wide variety of clinical indications, from post-menopausal hormone replacement therapy to menstrual cycle regulation to miscarriage prevention. And if a pregnant mother regrets taking the first pill of the chemical abortion regimen, promptly administered progesterone can inhibit the effects of the abortion pill and maximize the embryo’s chance of survival.

The controversy surrounding APR is political, not medical. As Thomas Perille, M.D. writes in the Colorado Sun:

The science behind the abortion pill reversal protocol is sound. There is a biologically plausible mechanism – mifepristone competes with progesterone for the progesterone receptors in the uterus that are instrumental in sustaining the pregnancy. By flooding the uterus with high-dose natural progesterone, the adverse effect of mifepristone can be reduced, and the chances of a continuing pregnancy increased.

There is animal-research support for this mechanism. There was also inadvertent proof of the principle demonstrated by a multinational, randomized study that utilized a different progestin agent, medroxyprogesterone. When administered at the same time as mifepristone in an abortion, women who received the progestin were four times as likely to have a continuing pregnancy.   

Put another way, “abortion pill reversal protocol has been portrayed as ‘experimental,’ when it’s really just an application of existing treatments to a relatively new situation.”

Many children owe their lives to APR. Opponents of APR cannot identify a single woman who has been killed or injured by a reversal. But this was never about women’s safety, was it? A feminist government would not prohibit women from changing their minds and rejecting abortion. Colorado’s proposal undermines its claim of being a “pro-choice” state. It is, instead, a state that does the abortion industry’s bidding.

IF YOU HAVE TAKEN MIFEPRISTONE AND NEED ABORTION PILL REVERSAL, CALL 877-558-0333 IMMEDIATELY.