The abortion pill became available in Canada in January 2017, and since then, chemical abortions have grown in usage, representing a higher percentage of abortions committed. In the United States, the steady increase in abortion pill prescriptions jumped markedly after the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court.

According to the Guttmacher Institute— the research arm of Planned Parenthood— two decades after the first abortion pill was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, chemical abortions represent more than half of abortions committed in the U.S., at exactly 54 per cent of all reported abortions. Since many at-home abortions are unreported, this percentage is thought to be much higher.

With this alarming rise of chemical abortions, the pro-life movement has been working to make women aware that this process can be reversed. With abortion pills so widely accessible, and able to be purchased online with minimal medical guidance, women are most often alone during the abortion process. Not only is this dangerous for their health, but they are often unaware how to stop the process once it has begun. Women who have begun to undertake a chemical abortion are still able to change their minds and save the life of their children. They just need to know how.

Chemical abortions, which the FDA approves as a “safe” method of abortion up until 10 weeks, is done in two stages. First, the woman takes mifepristone (previously known as RU-486). This synthetic steroid blocks the production of progesterone in the woman’s body. It is this production of progesterone that allows the woman’s body to maintain and nurture the child in her womb. When a woman takes mifepristone, the child is cut off from its supply of blood and nutrition and starves to death as the lining of the uterus thins.  The child detaches from the uterine wall, and its body can be expelled in the second stage, 24-48 hours later, by taking Misoprostol. This drug, taken either orally or vaginally, causes contractions which expel the dead baby. 

What many women do not know is that even after they have taken mifepristone, it is not too late for them to change their minds. There is still the chance that they can save their baby’s life if they are able to have progesterone administered to them soon enough. This has been proven, and there have been countless success stories of women who have saved their babies by administering progesterone on time.

Jakki Jeffs, executive director of Alliance for Life Canada, told The Interim that they call it a “second chance at choice.” Jeffs said that if progesterone is administered within the 72-hour window, there is a 64-68 per cent chance that the baby could be saved. 

Many organizations are available to help women who want to reverse their chemical abortion, including Cornerstone Pregnancy Services, Birthright, Heartbeat International, and the Abortion Pill Reversal Helpline.

However, although the effects of the abortion pill can be fully reversed if caught in time, pro-abortion organizations such as Planned Parenthood downplay and reject reversal methods, saying that “claims about treatments that reverse the effects of medication abortion… haven’t been proven in reliable medical studies.” Similarly, the American College of Gynecologists said that abortion reversal is “not based on science and does not meet clinical standards” and that it does “not support prescribing progesterone to stop a medication abortion.”

Jeffs also said that the claim that progesterone is not safe, or scientifically unproven is entirely unfounded. “They have been using progesterone for 50 years, as a treatment for miscarriage,” she said. 

When asked why she thinks pro-abortion organizations detract from the usefulness of progesterone, Jeffs said “this is all about abortion. For those who support abortion, all they want to do is publicize (abortion), get it out, and make sure it is used.”

In the United States, pro-life groups have erected billboards to inform the public about the abortion pill reversal. Jeffs said Alliance for Life has developed postcards that she hopes will be purchased and distributed by pro-life groups in Canada.

CLC national president Jeff Gunnarson said that opposition to abortion pill reversal shows that abortion activists and their political allies “are not pro-choice but pro-abortion, or they would support a woman’s choice to change her mind about abortion.” He called upon the Canadian pro-life movement to get behind efforts to publicize the abortion pill reversal so that women who change their mind after taking mifepristone have a chance to save their preborn babies.