Abortion Pill Rescue Network reports 7,000 babies saved by reversal drug
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 18, 2025 / 17:23 pm (CNA).
The abortion pill reversal (APR) drug supplied by Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN) has saved the lives of more than 7,000 unborn children since 2007, according to estimates from Heartbeat International.
Heartbeat International, a pro-life organization that operates APRN, announced the milestone in a June 12 article posted on “Pregnancy Help News,” a website the organization runs.
Approximately 1,000 unborn lives have been saved over the last seven months alone, according to the organization’s numbers.
“Instead of taking a year to add another 1,000, it’s only taken about half that time,” Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey said in a statement, adding: “The APRN team reached 7,000 faster than expected.”
“Since November of last year, we’ve seen a marked increase in women finding us with the hope of changing the path they had previously chosen,” he added. “Milestones like this are important as we see chemical abortion exploding across the U.S. It’s only natural that with more abortions, there will be more women who regret making — or being forced into — that decision.”
APR is intended to reverse the effects of the abortion pill mifepristone and save the pregnancy.
Mifepristone, which is the first drug taken for a chemical abortion, attempts to kill the unborn child by blocking the hormone progesterone, which cuts off the child’s supply of oxygen and nutrients. A second pill, misoprostol, induces contractions to expel the child from the mother’s body.
If a woman has only taken mifepristone but has not yet taken misoprostol, the reversal drug could save her unborn child’s life by restoring the hormone progesterone. APR is often offered at pro-life pregnancy centers, also known as pregnancy resource centers.
Heartbeat International calculates the number of lives saved by combining individually tracked cases with statistical estimates, according to a spokesperson. Tracked cases, which account for thousands of lives, are women whose pregnancy was tracked after taking APR drugs.
For the unconfirmed outcomes, the group estimates the number of lives saved based on the success rate of APR drugs, which was calculated in a study by George Delgado, the medical director of Culture of Life Family Services and an APRN medical adviser.
“It’s very exciting to see that it has been successful that many times because it’s offering an option to women who begin a chemical abortion and change their minds,” Dr. Karen Poehailos, a Catholic pro-life doctor who serves on the medical advisory board for APRN, told CNA.
Poehailos, who also works as a family physician, said she has overseen more than 80 APR treatments for women. She said she still keeps in touch with the family of the first child she helped save with APR, who is now 9 years old and “doing well.”
She said APR treatments are “basically a matter of receptor competition” in which APR drugs try to restore progesterone while the mifepristone works to block it. She added that it’s “a very safe medicine to use in pregnancy” and has been prescribed by doctors to reduce the risks of miscarriages and premature labor for about 50 years.
“[Progesterone is] a very normal hormone for pregnancy and is present in large amounts throughout the pregnancy,” Poehailos noted.
*Political and legal efforts to curtail access*
There have been numerous political and legal efforts to curtail access to APR and restrict the operations and speech of pro-life pregnancy resource centers that often provide them.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Heartbeat International and affiliated pregnancy resource centers over use of the drug. The lawsuit claimed that there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that the drugs can reverse the effects of a chemical abortion pill.
The lawsuit alleged that advertisements promoting the abortion pill reversal drugs are fraudulent and misleading, labeling the actions of pregnancy resource centers as “predatory and unlawful.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a similar lawsuit in her state, claiming that pro-life pregnancy centers are engaged in false advertising in their promotion of the medicine.
Other efforts include Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signing a bill that would have banned the drug had it not been halted by a judge. Additionally, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health launched an “education campaign” against pregnancy centers, alleging they spread misinformation.
Some women who say APR has saved their children’s lives have fought back against efforts to prevent access. Mackenna Greene, who said her daughter was saved by APR treatments after she took mifepristone, was involved in a lawsuit against the Colorado ban.
Poehailos told CNA she’s “not certain why it has become such an issue” since the hormone has been in use for more than five decades.
She pointed to the 2018 Delgado study of more than 750 women that found two-thirds of women who took progesterone after taking mifepristone gave birth to the child. Alternatively, women who take mifepristone but skip the second chemical abortion drug misoprostol only give birth to the child about 20%-40% of the time, according to the study.
“It’s statistically significant,” Poehailos said.