(Oregon Right to Life) — A young woman facing an unsupported pregnancy while in college said she’s grateful and happy to be a mom after a sidewalk counselor was instrumental in helping her change her mind about abortion and successfully follow the Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) protocol.
An article published last week by Pregnancy Help News, the news arm of Heartbeat International, featured the story of Sarah, a college student preparing to transfer to a four-year university. When she learned she was pregnant, she shared she “felt like I made a huge mistake” and “was upset and sad.” She decided to get an abortion after discussing the issue with her boyfriend, who expressed he wasn’t happy about the pregnancy.
The decision to get an abortion was deeply uncomfortable for Sarah, who said she “grew up Christian and was always against abortion.” And feeling uneasy about abortion is not an uncommon experience for women. A 2023 peer-reviewed study found that 70% of abortions are “coerced, unwanted or inconsistent with women’s preferences.” But despite her reservations, Sarah went to an abortion facility and was given abortion pills.
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Chemical abortions – which have become the most popular method of abortion in the U.S., reportedly accounting for an estimated 63% of legal abortions in 2023 – are carried out in a two-step process. Mifepristone, the first drug in the abortion pill regimen, blocks the action of the growth hormone progesterone, causing the embryo to die of starvation. A second drug, misoprostol, is taken 24–72 hours later to induce contractions to expel the body.
According to Pregnancy Help News, Sarah took mifepristone and left the abortion facility in tears. That’s when a pro-life sidewalk counselor outside shared with her that, if she changed her mind, it’s possible to reverse a chemical abortion as long as it’s done early enough.
Feeling emotionally overwhelmed, she went to her car and called her father for support. When he ultimately encouraged her to try to save her baby, she decided to call the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN), a network managed by Heartbeat International that helps connect women with pro-life medical professionals who can guide them in the Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) protocol.
APR is a fairly simple process. Women who regret beginning the chemical abortion process can take progesterone within 24–72 hours after taking mifepristone (but before taking misoprostol) to stop the deadly effects. Initial studies of APR have shown a 64-68% success rate.
“I was given the resources I needed to reverse the pill and given a series of ultrasounds to make sure the baby was okay,” Sarah told Pregnancy Help News. In November, she safely delivered a healthy baby girl, who she named Cameron.
“She’s perfect,” Sarah told the outlet. “I love taking care of her.”
Today, Sarah has adjusted her college plans for now to care for Cameron, with plans to reapply to her chosen four-year university next year. She told Pregnancy Help News she’s focused on working “towards creating a stable and loving environment for” her daughter, and said she’ll be needing to rely fully on her newly strengthened relationship with God to do that. Ultimately, Sarah said the abortion pill reversal protocol changed her life for the better, helping her move forward in a positive direction with no regrets.
“I am so happy I don’t have to live with the decision to terminate my pregnancy,” she told the pro-life news outlet. “I’m so happy to have a baby and be a mom.”
Sarah’s story could have been very different. Every year, abortion pills claim many unborn lives and cause serious health problems for women.
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A study published last year calculated the severe complication rate associated with mifepristone to be twenty-two times the one currently listed on the drug’s official FDA label. A white paper released by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) in September also shone a spotlight on the abortion pill’s risks, showing that adverse events including “hemorrhage, infection, and incomplete abortions often go unrecorded in official data, giving the public a misleading picture of safety,” according to the NRLC press release.
Additionally, ease of access to the dangerous drugs has enabled men to access the pills to cause abortions against the will of mothers. Examples highlighted by the pro-life news outlet Live Action include Robert Kawada, charged with misleading a woman into taking a chemical abortion drug under the pretense it was an iron pill in 2024; Jeffery Smith, who was convicted of attempted first-degree intentional homicide for slipping an abortion drug into his former girlfriend’s glass of water in 2022; and Justin Banta, a U.S. Department of Justice employee charged with capital murder for poisoning his girlfriend’s drink with the toxic drug, among others.
Meanwhile, as pro-abortion activist groups seek to expand access to chemical abortion, pro-life advocates are interested in ensuring that women who regret their decision to abort are equipped with potentially life-saving resources.
Heartbeat International, a pro-life organization that currently manages the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN) and supports more than 2,000 pro-life pregnancy resource centers in 50 countries around the world, noted in late 2024 that 6,000 babies had thus far been saved from chemical abortions thanks to APRN.
To learn more about the Abortion Pill Rescue Network, go to heartbeatinternational.org/our-work/apr.
If you or someone you know needs abortion pill reversal, visit abortionpillreversal.com.
