\n\tClaire Cleveland<\/span><\/p>\n

In Glenwood Springs, Colorado, registered nurse Katie Laven answers calls from people who\u2019ve started the two-pill medication abortion regimen and want to stop the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are just in turmoil,\u201d said Laven, who works at the Abortion Pill Rescue Network and answers some of the roughly 150 calls it says come in each month. \u201cThey feel like, \u2018Well, maybe an abortion would make it better.\u2019 And then they take the abortion pill and they\u2019re like, \u2018I don\u2019t feel better. In fact, I feel much worse that I did that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Abortion Pill Rescue Network<\/a> is run by Heartbeat International<\/a>, an anti-abortion group that promotes a controversial practice called abortion pill reversal, in which a patient is given progesterone within 72 hours of taking mifepristone, the first pill administered in a medication abortion<\/a>, and before taking misoprostol, the second pill. The organization said more than 4,000 infants have been born since 2013 after people went through the reversal process. KFF Health News couldn\u2019t independently verify that number, which Heartbeat International said is based on internal patient data.<\/p>\n

But such interventions may be coming to an end in Colorado, which recently became the first state to ban abortion pill reversals. The Colorado legislature passed a bill<\/a> to make prescribing any drug in this way medical misconduct, unless three of the state\u2019s medical boards find it is a \u201cgenerally accepted standard of practice.\u201d Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law on April 14.<\/p>\n

The bill also limits advertising by pregnancy resource centers<\/a>, which do not offer abortions; rather, they are known to try to talk people out of getting an abortion.<\/p>\n

The Colorado attorney general\u2019s office, several district attorneys, the Colorado Medical Board, and the Colorado Board of Nursing said they would not enforce the new law until the two medical boards determine whether abortion reversal is \u201ca generally accepted standard of practice,\u201d The Colorado Sun reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

Pills have emerged as the latest front in the war over abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade<\/em> in June 2022. In early April, a federal judge in Texas ruled to halt access<\/a> to mifepristone nationwide, a decision later stayed by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe push to promote so-called medication abortion reversal is part of a larger strategy that aims to misinform the public about abortion safety, about the effectiveness of abortion methods, about people who are seeking abortion care and how sure they are of their decision,\u201d said Daniel Grossman<\/a>, director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at the University of California-San Francisco. \u201cAll of that misinformation has played an important role in eroding people\u2019s rights to this essential component of health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Laven, the nurse who works for the Abortion Pill Rescue Network hotline, abortion pill reversal is another aspect of patient choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not be forcing them to continue,\u201d she said of pregnant people. \u201cWe should give them the choice to stop if they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2020, medication abortion accounted for more than half of all documented abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute<\/a>, a research organization that supports abortion rights. During the pandemic, the FDA eliminated a long-standing rule that abortion pills be picked up in person, paving the way for patients to receive them in the mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is no comprehensive public data on how often a person takes the first abortion pill then changes their mind. Andrea Trudden, Heartbeat International\u2019s vice president of communications and marketing, said in a statement that about 150 women a month start the reversal process through its network, but she did not respond to requests for more details.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo woman should be forced to complete an abortion she no longer wants,\u201d Trudden said. \u201cImagine knowing that there is a way you can try to save your baby and not be allowed to. It\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abortion rights advocates said patients do sometimes change their minds, even though doctors typically counsel patients beforehand that it\u2019s not a reversible process. Doctors can recommend that they induce vomiting if less than an hour has passed since taking mifepristone or else tell them to forgo the second pill, misoprostol. They also cited ANSIRH\u2019s Turnaway Study<\/a>, which tracked more than 600 people who had abortions in the United States for five years afterward, and found that more than 95% felt abortion had been the right decision for them.<\/p>\n