As OB/GYNs, we’ve shared with tens of thousands of women the incredible joy of pregnancy, the fear of a complicated pregnancy, the concerns of unplanned pregnancies, and the consuming grief of loss of a preborn baby or a child. We don’t take any of it for granted.

We also do not take lightly SB23-190 – Colorado’s legislation that threatens to limit the ability of Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRCs) to advertise and removes women’s right to choose to continue pregnancy by Abortion Pill Reversal (APR). The bill would have devastating consequences.

The bill’s title, “Deceptive Trade Practice Pregnancy-Related Service,” implies application to all pregnancy-related services but actually only targets PRCs. We have never witnessed deception or coercion in a PRC, but Colorado already has a deceptive trade practice law for these situations. If this bill is deemed necessary, it should protect women in ALL pregnancy-related services – or the bill itself is deceptive.

One of us (Dr. Wheeler), having previously performed abortions, believed PRCs employed deceptive and coercive practices because of hearsay. Then one day, I entered a PRC as a skeptic, and was shocked to find a compassionate, non-coercive, medically accurate, factual, caring, non-judgmental and unhurried approach to patients. PRCs exist not to limit choice, but to help women overcome obstacles leading them to feel abortion is their only choice. Without alternatives to abortion, like those offered by PRCs, there is no choice for these women.

The more than 2,700 PRCs in the U.S. provide a variety of free resources to patients, including pregnancy tests, STD testing, ultrasounds, birth control counseling, parenting classes, housing and baby-care items. In 2019 PRCs provided more than $266 million in services. Medical care at PRCs is supervised by a licensed physician, just like it is in abortion clinics. Ultrasounds offered at PRCs are performed by trained medical professionals and comply with medical standards. Only 17% of U.S. PRCs receive government funding, and PRCs do not generate profits and have no financial motive to coerce or deceive.

On the other hand, abortion is a lucrative business. Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics don’t offer free resources or help for women choosing to continue a pregnancy. The government provides 37% of Planned Parenthood’s funding. Their 2020-21 Annual Report showed excess total revenue over expenses of $69.7 million and revealed abortions made up 96.6% of their pregnancy resolution services. Planned Parenthood’s financial benefit requires greater protection from deceptive and coercive practices.

SB23-190 also aims to prohibit APR. APR is a protocol that administers progesterone to women who have started but not completed their chemical abortion drugs. Some women DO immediately regret their abortion decision, and these women deserve the right to do everything they can to continue their pregnancy. Fortunately, scientific evidence shows APR is both safe and effective:

• There is biological plausibility. The first of the two abortion drugs, mifepristone, reversibly blocks the progesterone receptor, causing breakdown of the placenta, and the death of the developing baby. The manufacturer’s studies demonstrated the block is reversible.   
• Progesterone in similar doses has been safely used for more than 50 years to treat women with recurrent miscarriage, in vitro fertilization, infertility and for preterm birth prevention. 
• A 1999 FDA extensive review reported progesterone is safe in pregnancy. A 2008 American Society of Reproductive Medicine clinical bulletin agreed.   
• A case series of more than 750 women given APR resulted in 64% to 68% live birth when taken within 72 hours of mifepristone (alone). Case series are a common research method when it is unethical or not feasible to perform a randomized placebo-controlled study.

Abortion pill reversal is now available through more than 1,300 providers in all 50 states, and in 86 countries. In the U.S., more than 4,000 women have successfully saved the lives of their unborn babies, with no increase in birth defects, and a significant benefit of reduction in preterm birth.

Recently one of us (Dr. Trandem) saw a woman in a PRC in tears asking for APR. She had three beautiful children and reported she felt like she just couldn’t handle a fourth and ended up taking the abortion pill hastily. She was beside herself with regret and begging us to help her save her unborn baby. We performed an ultrasound and saw her baby still had a heartbeat, and we immediately gave her the progesterone medicine to help support her pregnancy. We have since seen her weekly, and now she only sheds tears of joy every time we see her baby growing healthily! APR empowers women to save themselves and their families.

Colorado law states a woman has the right to continue her pregnancy. When a woman desperately wants to save her baby’s life after taking mifepristone, it is unethical and frankly cruel to not offer APR, a safe, commonly used medication that at least doubles the chance her baby will survive.  

We urge you to contact your House Representatives now and ask them to oppose SB23-190.

Catherine Wheeler, M.D., is a board-certified OB/GYN who practiced for 24 years in Utah and now resides in Colorado. Karysse Trandem, M.D., is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologic surgeon in Naples, Florida. She has completed distinguished research fellowships at both the National Institutes of Health in Washington and the World Health Organization in Geneva.