By: Brigid Curtis Ayer

ABORTION PILL REVERSAL MAY BE ADDED TO INFORMED CONSENT LAW

INDIANAPOLIS—An Indiana House committee heard a bill to expand Indiana’s laws regarding informed consent for abortion to include information on nonsurgical, abortion pill reversal. The Indiana Catholic Conference supports the measure.

State Rep. Ron Bacon, R-Chandler

House Bill 1128, authored by Rep. Ron Bacon, R-Chandler, would require the Indiana Department of Health to develop a form that provides women information about an abortion pill reversal procedure. The form would have to list websites and telephone numbers that could provide more information on the potential reversal as well as the names of local medical professionals who could aid in the procedure.

The measure was heard before the House Public Policy Committee, Feb. 8, and chairman of the panel Rep. Benjamin Smaltz, R-Auburn, said he would hold the bill to give panel members an opportunity to clarify their questions.

Glenn Tebbe, Indiana Catholic Conference Executive Director

Glenn Tebbe, executive director for the Indiana Catholic Conference, testified in support of the bill, saying the measure would strengthen Indiana’s informed consent statute by ensuring that the mother is fully informed of the risks as well as options should she wish to reconsider her decision. “It gives the mother an opportunity to save her child,” said Tebbe. The Indiana Catholic Conference is the public policy arm of the Catholic Church in Indiana and represents the church at the statehouse.

Bacon, who works as a respiratory therapist, said he learned about the Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) for chemical abortion when he met Christina Francis, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Fort Wayne, while attending a medical seminar. Bacon said, “If a woman changes her mind, there is a chance to reverse it.”

CHEMICAL ABORTIONS ARE DRUG-INDUCED, NON SURGICAL ABORTION

A medical or chemical abortion is a non-surgical, drug-induced form of abortion with a two-step process. The expectant mother takes pills containing Mifepristone (RU-486) and later takes Misoprostol (or Cytotec) to end the life of the baby. The first drug, Mifepristone acts as a progesterone blocker which causes a miscarriage, and the second drug Misoprostol causes the woman to have contractions to expel the baby. To reverse a chemical abortion, a woman is given progesterone to counteract the progesterone blocking first drug. Current abortion pill reversal is successful only after the first drug is taken.

MOTHER TESTIFIES ABOUT REVERSING HER  CHEMICAL ABORTION

Testifying in support of the bill, Ashley Sams of Indianapolis choked back tears and stopped several times to compose herself. Shortly after taking the first round of abortion pills, Sams felt guilt and panic. Sams knew she made the “wrong choice”. Immediately she began desperately surfing the web for a support group to help with her emotional breakdown, and stumbled across the abortion reversal pill.

Sams said, “I found reversal help by accident. That information should be provided to everyone who takes the abortion pill, because we’re the ones that have to live with the consequences of our actions.” Sams successfully reversed her abortion using the APR method and is the mother of a healthy, 17-month-old boy.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD OPPOSED TO ABORTION PILL REVERSAL

Patricia Stauffer, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky testified in opposition to the bill saying the bill was unnecessary and it only “seeks to stigmatize a woman seeking abortion.”

Katherine McHugh, a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist in Indianapolis with Indiana University Health testified in opposition to the bill saying she wanted to make a “simple point.” She said, “This is not vetted science, and it’s not good medicine.” McHugh added, “This is not good science and it’s not good for my patients.”

Christina Francis, a Ft. Wayne obstetrician and gynecologist

PHYSICIANS OFFER HOPE TO REVERSE DRUG-INDUCED ABORTION

Testifying in support of HS 1128, Christina Francis, a Ft. Wayne obstetrician and gynecologist, and president for the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that giving a large dose of progesterone can allow a woman who has initiated the first round of progesterone blockers to induce an abortion to be reversed. She said the use of progesterone to prevent miscarriage is safe and well-documented. The first recorded successful abortion pill reversal was documented in 2006. The reversal procedure is 70 percent successful and does not increase the incidence of birth defects. Francis said the more women are aware of this option the more success stories there will be.

Casey Reisng, M.D. Magnificat Family Medicine in Indianapolis

Casey Reising, who described herself as a “womb to tomb” family practice physician of Magnificat Family Medicine in Indianapolis, testified in support of the bill. Reisling said she is the only full-time physician trained in NaProTECHNOLOGY in Indianapolis and she has treated three patients with APR. Natural Procreative Technology, also called NaProTECHNOLOGY, is a new women’s health science that monitors and maintains a woman’s reproductive health and gynecological health. Reising said she is one of many NaPro-trained physicians who assist patients that call into the APR reversal hotline. Reising treated Sams’ when she called the hotline to reverse her abortion.

The Abortion Reversal Pill Network reports there have been 300 successful births after using the reversal procedure. These documented abortion pill reversal cases are expected to be published in a medical journal in the near future by George Delgado, a family practice physician in San Diego who also serves as medical director for the Culture of Life Family Services.

Currently there are abortion centers operating in the Indiana communities of Merrillville, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Lafayette, Indianapolis, and Bloomington.

ABORTION LAW IN INDIANA

Some key points about Indiana’s abortion law:

• Abortion is legal for the full nine months of pregnancy in Indiana.
• Freestanding abortion centers may only do abortions legally in the first trimester.
• Indiana maintains a ban on partial-birth abortion.
• Indiana law maintains key informed consent provisions for women considering abortion but is lacking in a requirement that the information be provided in writing.
• Indiana law requires parental consent for girls under 18-years of age.
• Abortion counselors must inform a woman considering abortion about the ability to see an ultrasound image of her baby and the ability to hear her baby’s heartbeat.

Tebbe said he expects the bill to pass the House panel and move the House floor for approval by the end of February.