Medical abortion is a two-drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol.
Mifepristone is given first to compete with the mother's progesterone, a naturally occurring hormone that prepares her body for pregnancy. The pill creates a hostile environment for pregnancy so that the embryo is unable to implant in the mother's uterus, causing it to die from lack of hydration and nutrition.
Misoprostol, usually taken one to two days after mifepristone, induces uterine contractions that expel the embryo.
Clinical evidence shows that a regimen of progesterone, if administered within 72 hours of taking mifepristone and before taking the misoprostol, is 64% - 68% effective in reversing the effect of mifepristone.
But this week, claiming that "medication abortion reversal is unproven, unethical, and unsafe to provide to patients," the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a memo warning doctors against utilizing the abortion pill reversal (APR) protocol, considering it inconsistent with "accepted practices."
Myrna Flynn, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, objects.
"We know that this is safe," she argues. "We know that it's effective because to date there have been at least 4,000 children born to women who have taken advantage of this second chance at choice."
Since the procedure has proven safe for women and effective in saving babies' lives, Flynn says the health agency's memo, which warns that any facility that is not compliant with the rules could face prosecution from the attorney general, is political.
"Physicians who prescribe abortion pill reversal could have their licenses revoked because the state is deeming abortion pill reversal as dangerous and as quack medicine," Flynn relays.
But as Live Action News points out, the developers of the APR are known and respected physicians, and progesterone is a bioidentical hormone that has been safely given to women since the 1950s for other things like recurrent miscarriage or preterm labor.
So, the pro-life community is preparing to back doctors who choose to risk their careers to save lives through abortion pill reversal.
