VANCOUVER—Distressed women who take abortion drug RU-486 and change their minds have a chance to save their unborn babies, according to a group of U.S. doctors.
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists is promoting an Emergency Abortion Reversal Kit that can counteract the effects of RU-486.
“The pro-life movement is about saving lives,” said Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life at a joint press conference with AAPLOG in February. “We save lives by taking despair and replacing it with hope.”
North Carolina doctor Matthew Harrison performed the first RU-486 reversal in 2007, Catholic News Service reported.
He said the medical abortion involves two pills. The first pill “essentially just blocks the progesterone receptors and starves the baby,” while the second, taken two days later, causes contractions to remove it.
In 2007, a distraught mother who said she had been “bullied and pressured” into taking the drug asked Doctor Harrison if he could stop its effects.
He gave her an injection of progesterone, thinking it would fill in for the hormone the abortion drug aimed to block. It worked, and the woman gave birth to a healthy girl, who is now a young cheerleader for a football team.
AAPLOG announced that, as of March 31, this method had saved at least 89 lives. Among them was Gabriel David Caicedo.
His mother, Andrea Minichini, took the first of the two pills at an abortion clinic. “I knew immediately after I swallowed the pill that I had made a bad decision,” she said at the press conference. “I even tried throwing up, but nothing happened.”
She found a phone number for an RU-486 reversal hotline. The reversal was successful and she gave birth to a healthy son.
Boyfriend Chris Caicedo said fatherhood may be a difficult pill to swallow at 22, but not an impossible one. “It’s a hard situation to go through, but it’s not as bad as many fathers think it is,” he said. “Gabe is the light of our life.”
At the February press conference, Doctor Mary Davenport said RU-486 is “not a quick and easy process.” The medical abortion comes with a 20 per cent risk of serious complications, including blood loss, infection, and death.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of RU-486 for abortions in the first few weeks of pregnancy in 2000.
It reported in 2011 that several women had died from sepsis after taking the abortion drug, adding it was a 1 in 100,000 chance.
For the reversal to have a chance, the unborn child must still have a heartbeat. Abortion Pill Reversal, an organization headquartered in San Diego, Calif., which runs a 24-7 emergency hotline, said their success rate is 60 per cent.
The group adds there is no evidence that RU-486 or the reversal doses of progesterone cause birth defects.
Health Canada has not yet made a decision on whether to approve RU-486 for use in this country.
