Exclusive: Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey on Abortion Pill Reversal Protocol

Despite claims from pro-abortion media and organizations, many women report regretting their abortions — some regret them while they are happening, and turn to “abortion pill reversal” to try to stop the process before it is too late.

The abortion pill reversal protocol is a method often used by pro-life pregnancy clinics to attempt to reverse a medication abortion in its early phase. President of Heartbeat International Jor-El Godsey told Breitbart News Daily on Wednesday that his organization’s Abortion Pill Rescue Network is estimated to have saved 5,000 unborn babies from abortion using  this protocol. 

“We have a 24/7, 365 [days a year] call center that’s able to answer and help women who are in the midst of that abortion — who no longer want, who no longer consent to the abortion,” he said. 

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A medication abortion is typically completed through a two-drug regimen within the first ten weeks of pregnancy. The first drug, mifepristone, blocks the action of the hormone progesterone, which the mother’s body produces to nourish the pregnancy. When progesterone is blocked, the lining of the mother’s uterus deteriorates, and blood and nourishment are cut off to the developing baby, who then dies inside the mother’s womb. The second drug, called misoprostol (also called Cytotec) then causes contractions and bleeding to expel the baby from the mother’s uterus. This kind of abortion accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States.

Proponents of the abortion pill reversal protocol say a woman may attempt to reverse her medication abortion after taking mifepristone, but before taking misoprostol, with providers prescribing progesterone in an attempt to overcome the progesterone-blocking effects of the mifepristone and maintain the pregnancy.

“Mifepristone is designed to outcompete the progesterone that’s already in the woman’s body,” Godsey said. “So abortion pill reversal, it’s just progesterone bio-identical to what she produces. And it actually kind of floods the zone and out-competes the mifepristone that’s trying to block progesterone.”

“[The process] has to happen as quickly as possible because time is of the essence… Most women call us right from the abortion clinic, although now of course, [abortion pills are being] delivered to home[s]. [Abortion pill reversal] has to happen in within 72 hours. But most of the women call us [and] 75 percent reach us within the first 24 hours,” he added. 

While the method is not formally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Godsey’s organization cites a 2018 observational study published in Issues in Law and Medicine which found that intramuscular progesterone and high dose oral progesterone “were most effective with reversal rates of 64 percent and 68 percent respectively” with “no apparent increased risk of birth defects.” 

But the method has received the ire of fact-checkers, left-wing media, and pro-abortion organizations alike. 

In 2021, Google reportedly banned advertisements for abortion pill reversal, garnering backlash from Republican lawmakers who slammed the tech giant for “pro-life censorship.”

“Well, in Yelp and Google, we’ve seen a variety of things, and we’ve seen them actively delist pregnancy centers. We’ve seen them eliminate them from [view] — we saw this happen in DC actually. The center was somehow no longer on Google Maps at all,” Godsey alleged.

“We’ve seen some things that have been kind of crazy…In some cases, it’s as bad as being banned. I can tell you also, abortion pill reversal has been censored by Google. They won’t let us run those ads. They call it an unsubstantiated claim, despite the evidence we’ve presented to them to the contrary,” he added.  “So these are active efforts by Big Tech to obscure the truth from women.”

Left-wing fact-checkers cite the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology (ACOG) to discredit abortion pill reversal. ACOG, which has openly called for no limits on abortion, claims abortion pill reversal is “not supported by science” and “unproven and unethical.”

ACOG cites a 2020 study to back its position that abortion pill reversal is dangerous. The study was intended to be a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 40 patients; however, researchers stopped enrollment after 12 patients for safety concerns. Severe hemorrhage requiring ambulance transport to the hospital occurred in three participants, only one of which had taken progesterone for abortion pill reversal. Ultimately, researchers “could not estimate the efficacy” of progesterone due to “safety concerns” when mifepristone is administered on its own.

The study, which has been cited in various media reports slamming abortion pill reversal, was notably funded by the pro-abortion Society of Family Planning. Additionally, one of its authors worked for abortion giant Planned Parenthood, and another worked as a consultant to Danco Laboratories “providing medical consultation for clinicians that contact Danco with questions regarding mifepristone,” according to the study’s financial disclosures. Danco Laboratories makes the abortion pill, and is currently at the center of a lawsuit along with the FDA over the agency’s approval of mifepristone in the U.S. That case has been taken up by the Supreme Court.

Another group often cited by left-wing media warning against the abortion pill reversal protocol includes NewsGuard, a self-appointed arbiter of “truth” that, according to a Media Research Center study ranks leftist media 26 percentage points higher, on average, than right-leaning media.  NewsGuard then advises advertisers on which media are brand-safe for advertising, the likely results of which starve conservative outlets of advertising revenue.

“The anecdotal ‘success stories’ often fail to acknowledge that there is no reputable medical evidence that taking progesterone to reverse the effects of mifepristone increases the likelihood of a pregnancy continuing,” Anicka Slachta, a senior analyst at NewsGuard, told AFP in June of 2023.

That report also cites the far-left Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for its claims against abortion pill reversal. This British nonprofit became infamous during the Biden administration as the origin of the “disinformation dozen,” a group of Facebook accounts the nonprofit accused of being the top sources of “COVID misinformation.” As Breitbart News reported, the CCDH’s involvement in the Biden censorship regime made it a target of lawsuits, as well as a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee in August of last year.

Several states have laws mandating that abortionists make patients aware of the abortion pill reversal protocol as an option. Just last year, Kansas became the 15th state to pass such a law, but the law was quickly blocked in court after Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit.

In contrast, Colorado — which has no limits on abortion — passed a law this year (the first of its kind) that explicitly banned abortion pill reversal. However, a federal judge blocked the law in October of 2023 after the founders of Bella Health and Wellness, Catholic mother and daughter nurse practitioners Dede Chism and Abby Sinnett, filed a lawsuit challenging the law and alleging that it violates their First Amendment religious and speech rights.

Judge Daniel Domenico, appointed by former President Donald Trump, issued a preliminary injunction against the law and wrote that Bella Health and Wellness “are likely to succeed on their [abortion pill reversal] claims.”

Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.