It has become abundantly clear that there isn’t much common ground between the pro-life and pro-choice camps. But I have a question for pro-choice advocates: do you genuinely believe women should have a choice? If so, perhaps there is common ground on the issue of abortion pill reversal (APR). Let me explain.
The pro-life position is clear: human life begins at conception, full stop. To end that life deliberately and knowingly through abortion or other intentional acts is taking human life. To me, debates about the legality of abortion at different stages have no bearing on that reality; they simply delineate policy choices or compromises designed to accommodate an electorate. But the fundamental issue is not in question.
The pro-choice position, on the other hand, seems neither principled nor consistent. Survey after survey indicates that even in the pro-choice camp, most people believe that there should be some limits placed on abortion. However, many people refuse to say where the line should be drawn, settling for arbitrary demarcations such as the age at which one can detect a heartbeat (which varies), viability (which varies), or just picking a number out of a hat as far as gestational age.
One gets the feeling that many pro-choice advocates who support limitations are merely deciding based on their personal “ick” factor, which, to be quite honest, is based on a willful ignorance of what they are advocating. If they were to honestly confront the degree of “ick” that they are willing to tolerate, they might revise their views.
In some cases, the staunchest pro-abortion activists in organizations like Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), and even many politicians, advocate abortion up to (and sometimes past) the point of birth. While some politicians are trying to refute this claim, those who do seem determinedly unwilling to commit to any demarcation line beyond which abortion should be banned.
Of course, this disagreement has led to the patchwork of state laws governing abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Some states take the extreme position, allowing abortion anytime before birth. Oregon’s laws are the most pro-abortion, but Colorado’s are not far behind. In Colorado, it is legal to have an abortion up to the moment of birth. However, there are some minimal limitations, such as requiring parental notice for a minor’s abortion and denying Medicaid coverage, except in limited circumstances.
However, the Colorado Medical Board has recently taken it upon itself to take a decidedly more pro-abortion stance, demonstrating without question that it is not an advocate for choice but for the affirmative killing of babies.
Should Doctors Lose Their Licenses for Helping Mothers Save Their Babies?
As many people familiar with ProLife Doc know, most abortions performed today are “medical abortions” or “chemical abortions.” In other words, they involve the use of the abortion pill. The abortion pill is a two-pill regimen. The first drug, mifepristone, blocks the binding of the mother’s own progesterone, a hormone critical to the baby’s support and development. Without progesterone, the baby is deprived of oxygen and nutrients. The baby is essentially starved and suffocated to death. The second drug, usually taken 24-48 hours later, induces contractions to expel the deceased baby.
However, the effects of the abortion drug mifepristone can be reversed. If started soon enough, before the baby has died and before taking the second drug, doctors have administered doses of natural, Bio-identical progesterone to protect the support of the pregnancy. That’s right: doctors use progesterone, the very same hormone that the mother’s body produces naturally during pregnancy.
In my obstetrics practice, I have personally and repeatedly successfully employed APR, at the request of the patients, to help women who have regretted their decision to reverse the effects of the abortion pill and continue their pregnancies, ultimately delivering healthy, full-term babies. After 19 reversal nattempts, I have helped deliver 15 healthy babies safe from death.
It is worth emphasizing that progesterone is not some “new experimental drug.” Progesterone, as a drug, is regularly used with pregnant women to prevent miscarriage, and it is not considered dangerous in the least when used in this way.
But the Colorado Medical Board has now banned doctors from even attempting to reverse the abortion pill, even if the mother desperately wants to try, and even though the regimen is to administer progesterone. Despite over 4,500 cases where APR has succeeded without harming either mother or baby, pro-abortion advocates claim that abortion pill reversal is “dangerous” and “unproven.” Pro-abortion advocates make misleading claims implying that APR is “unsafe” by saying that the FDA has not approved the treatment. Licensed physicians are at the request of the patients using this progesterone for “off label” use. “Off label use is quite common and constitutes up to 1/3 of all prescriptions written in the United States.” (See, for example, this article.)
Running Scared
It is clear what is going on. Abortion advocates are terrified that young pregnant women who face the realities of abortion after taking the pill will start to exercise the real power of “choice.” They are doing their utmost to suppress and discredit information about APR.
When abortions were conducted surgically, young women who had an abortion had nowhere to turn and no way to go back when they realized with regret what they had done. By then, they were already co-opted and scarred by their abortion experience – an experience induced by a carefully curated abortion mindset fed by the lies that babies are just “clumps of cells” and that abortion can “make it all go away.” And you can bet it was not Planned Parenthood waiting in the wings to offer sympathy and compassion.
Pro-abortion advocates have fought tooth and nail to prevent waiting periods, parental notification laws, informed consent, and other protections for young girls faced with unplanned pregnancies. Ignorance and isolation are their allies. For all their talk about “women’s rights” and “empowerment,” they are delighted with keeping young girls victimized, ignorant, and powerless. They don’t educate young girls on how their bodies are uniquely and beautifully designed to conceive and nurture new life. They don’t help young girls to respect their bodies rather than let boys and men use them for recreation. They don’t help young girls break away from abusive relationships. Instead, they advocate for a culture where young girls should regard themselves as the playthings of predatory men and then sell abortion as the solution to these self-destructive behaviors.
An Anti-Choice Agenda
The Colorado Medical Board is prepared to use its power to deny “choice” to young women by threatening doctors with being stripped of their medical licenses for trying to help young girls who want to exercise their choice – but only if that choice is life. Abortion Pill Reversal is only performed at the request of the pregnant patient.
The Colorado Medical Board essentially says that women should not have the ultimate say over their bodies and reproductive choices. If they were true pro-choice advocates, they would support women’s decisions, whatever they may be. APR embodies this principle by offering a second chance to women who have a change of heart after starting the abortion process. Instead of embracing this opportunity to empower women’s choices, these “pro-choice” proponents would rather see women locked into a decision they regret, forcing doctors to turn their backs on their patients. This is not pro-choice. It is pro-abortion.
Another irony is that Colorado has a “right to try” law. Under this law, a person is eligible to use an investigational drug (although, in this case, progesterone is not investigational) if the person has been diagnosed with a life-threatening condition. In the case of the abortion pill, the baby is clearly faced with a threat to its life, and the mother should have the right to try to save her baby’s life, a life that grows within her womb. The Colorado Medical Board is now denying young women even the right to try.
At ProLife Doc, I am unapologetically pro-life. I have also witnessed the life-saving and soul-saving power of APR. And even though I disagree with the pro-choice position, is no one in the pro-choice camp prepared to speak out against the Colorado Medical Board? Is no one willing to defend a woman’s right to choose life? I pray that there is common ground somewhere on this issue between me and people who are pro-choice. If you genuinely believe it is “your body, your choice,” you should stand with ProLife Doc on this issue. And if you don’t, we can both acknowledge what you truly stand for.
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