by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 12/3/14 12:40 PM

Since the introduction of the dangerous RU 486 (mifepristone) abortion drug, pro-life physicians have focused on coming up with a method of reversing the abortion pill process if a mother decides immediately after taking it that she wants her baby.

It’s not commonly known that the RU 486 abortion drug process can be reversed if a mother changes her mind about the abortion in time. LifeNews has chronicled a number of women who have already reversed their abortions.

However, a protocol has already been developed for helping women who changed their minds about going through with a multi-day second-trimester abortion after it’s been started. The process, which involves reversing a second trimester abortions by removing the laminaria, can be used as long as the abortion practitioner has not yet done the lethal injection that destroys the life of the unborn baby.

Now, pregnancy centers that help women find abortion alternatives are now also helping women who change their minds immediately after taking the abortion pill.

On November 17, 2014 the Women’s Choice Center of the Quad-Cities became the first pregnancy center in the Midwest to offer natural progesterone treatments to attempt to reverse RU-486 medical abortions. The treatments are being offered in partnership with Moline, Iowa-based OBGYN Dr. Karla Polaschek, the center’s medical director.

So far, there have been 58 babies born alive and healthy to mothers treated with this protocol after beginning a medical abortion. In addition, 106 women are expecting delivery of children they first tried to abort.

Dr. Poascheck is using a hormone treatment protocol developed by Dr. George Delgado, Medical Director of Culture of Life Family Services. Dr. Delgado reports a 60% success rate in attempted abortion pill reversals started within the first 72 hours after taking the first pill. Dr. Polaschek, who also serves on the board of Human Life International introduced the Iowa pregnancy center to the RU-486 attempted reversal concept. She recommended WCC become a referral site for women attempting to reverse their medical abortions.

According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, nearly half (2,314) of 4,638 abortions recorded in Iowa in 2012 were abortions involving RU 486. In an RU 486 pill-based abortion, pregnant women are given two drugs and directed to take them three days apart. The first, mifepristone, blocks the hormone progesterone from getting to the growing baby, starving it of the nutrients it needs to survive. The second drug, the ulcer pill misoprostol, triggers uterine contractions to expel the dead baby. Women eventually complete the abortion and home and deliver a dead baby.

Dr. Delgado and Dr. Thomas Hilgers found that women who receive high doses of progesterone shortly after taking the first abortion pill can override the action of the progesterone blocker, and save the pregnancy.

“Time is critical,” says Dr. Polaschek, who notes that the pregnancy center is launching a rapid-response protocol to get women wanting to reverse their medical abortions to their Clinic as quickly as possible, preferably within the first day or hours after the first abortion pill is taken.

Within the first week of offering the treatment protocol, WCC received its first call from the national website/hotline (www.abortionpillreversal.com), which offers referrals to women seeking to reverse their medical abortions.

“The potential demand for attempted reversals is great,” says Tyler, a certified counselor who has helped hundreds of post-abortive women along the path to healing. “Regret after an abortion can be devastating. For some, that regret begins immediately after the abortion. Previously, there hasn’t been much hope for turning back once a medical abortion began. Now there is.”